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TAMES HAMILTON 1IOWE, M. E 
Author and Lecturer 





The 

DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT 

OF 

SPECULATION ■ / 

AS EXEMPLIFIED IN GAMBLING IN PRICES OF OUR 
FOOD FRODUCTS 


Written Especially for the Education and Protection of Our Young 
Men and Women, About to Enter the Business or Professional 
World; and a Warning to Our Produce Growers 
and Provision Packers 


TRICKS OF THE MANIPULATOR EXPOSED 
HOW SPECULATORS ARE ALSO 
BUNCOED AND FLEECED 


Written by 

JAMES HAMILTON HOWE, M. B. 

Boston University, 1882 
For Ten Years Dean of DePauw University 

Author—Lecturer 


PRICE $1.00 


Published by 

The Dragon Publishing Company 
Leary Bldg.. Seattle. Washington, U. S. A. 

£-Cp\|gU 




COPYRIGHT 1916 

BY 

JAMES H. HOWE 

International Copyright Secured 
All Rights Reserved 



DEC 28 1916 


©CU455195 


V 




REVERENTLY DEDICATED 

To the Service of the 


DIVINE RULER OF THE UNIVERSE 

And to Those Who Have Been and Are Being Grievously Afflicted 
By The 

DRAGON 


• 'j y 1 


“We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded 
at hatred, ivhich lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inven¬ 
tions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? The great 
Red Dragon symbolizes a lie,—the belief that substance, life, and intelligence 
can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. 
Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy. 


A FINANCIAL BUCCANEER 



BENJAMIN P. HUTCHINSON—“OLD HUTCH” 

A Financial Traitor to His Country, Who Started the Ball Bolling 

“For years Ilntchinson’s sinister figure, he of the beak nose and shifting 
eye, brooded like an evil spirit over “The Pit,” a menace to price and peace. He 
died almost in darkness and despair.”—Marcossen. 

It is not known that Hutchinson laid claim to great beauty, but it is 
known that he laid claim to many millions in margins, put up by our people. 
This serious farce became a continuous performance, until Dragon Senior scooped 
him into his golden net. “He was later found selling old .lunk in New lork 
City." “How are the mighty fallen.” 





“These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination 
unto him; 

A proud looff, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. 

An heart that deviseih wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running 
to mischief, 

A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweih discord among 
bretheren.'" —Prov. 7: 16 to 19. 




And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither 
whatsoever worl^eth abomination, or mal^eth a lie.” —Rev. 21: 27. 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE 


REQUEST —I ask my readers to thoroughly absorb the Preface be¬ 
fore reading the following Chapters. This is an integral part and 
necessary, in order to fully appreciate the salient points of the main 
body of the book. 

A 

Some thirty-five years ago, I was led, somewhat by by own cu¬ 
pidity, to invest in what! I supposed would render a good profit. The 
sequel was as follows. There was no profit rendered, and the principal 
disappeared like “Ships that pass in the night.” With a strong suspicion 
that there was a “Negro in the woodpile”, and believing that we had 
been buncoed; with my post graduate university study and tutoring work, 
I casually took up the study of speculation, that of the most rabid nature, 
more as a hobby than anything else; endeavoring to ascertain where my 
money went, how it reached its destination and who received it. 

Intermittently, for over thirty years, these studies have been going 
on; and having learned something that will be of great benefit to my 
brother and sister, it now becomes my duty to present it to them, and in 
the following pages will be found a summary which is given with the 
hope that the information contained will serve as a protection for our 
young men, and young women as well, about to enter actively into a busi¬ 
ness or professional life. 

A set of lectures which were first arranged, were the outcome of 
a natural inquisitiveness which later developed into a serious study of 
a gross evil. This book was written at the suggestion of an experienced 
broker, with whom I had associated for several years; who proved 
himself an honest one; and who gave up a lucrative position in a broker¬ 
age office, although a family were dependent upon him, because he 
saw that his employer was carrying on questionable transactions. Neither 
was he one who, when you gave an order at a certain price, which he 
was able to fill at a quarter or three-eighths better, pocketed the differ¬ 
ence, as has been done thousands of times. It is considered one of the 
perquisites of the profession (?). This endeavor to enlighten our people, 
is not a “Propaganda Built Upon Prejudice”, but a denouncement of 
wrongs long endured. 




12 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Of course there are many ways that a person can speculate and 
gamble. In lands, mines, oil wells, and business of all kinds. Craps, 
Bridge-whist, Faro, etc.; but the men who engage in these risky under¬ 
takings should consider their families before embarking. So many 
mistakes are made. So many homes are placed at the mercy of the 
loan man; and the wife and mother placed in a state of mind bordering 
frenzy. 

But this so-called “business” which I am to uncover, is in a 
class by itself, and far removed from those just quoted. It is not even 
in the class with those who give short weight on a loaf of bread, or 
substitute low-grade wheat for high-grade, or mix one with the other, 
or substitute embalmed-beef for properly cured. Nor with those graft¬ 
ing line elevator men or storage grafters, nor the middlemen who “play 
both ends.” 

It is gambling of the worst kind, in which the book-maker orders 
the horses pulled; the faro croupier presses the electric button at mis¬ 
fortune; the card sharper has plenty of aces up his sleeves, and jokers 
and jackasses abound. 

Here, the victim, sailing at first upon the edge of the whirlpool, is 
soon drawn into the vortex and submerged. Like the hasheesh smoker, 
he is lulled into sweet dreams, only to- awaken to sorrow and financial 
terror. It is far worse than lottery; for there, each player generally 
has an even chance at the prize; while here, there is 98% of chance 
against one; culminating in no profit, and loss of 85% to 90%'•of the 
principal or margin put up to insecurely protect option deals. As carried 
on at the present time, it is the greatest swindle of the age. 

This gambling has been one of the causes of the following state¬ 
ment: “Sixty-six of every 100 persons dying in this country have abso¬ 
lutely! no estate; they die penniless. Of the remaining 34 persons, 25 
never accumulate more than $1,300 in their lifetime, and die with less 
than that. Only 9 persons in 100 have more than $5,000 when they 
pass on. 

Only 2% of the whole population may be classed as “well-to-do. 
The other 98% of the people of this country have only their wages 
from day to day, or are dependent upon their relatives, or upon charity. 
Of every 100 persons who reach the age of 65, no fewer than 97 are 
partly or wholly dependent, for food, clothing and shelter.” 

These figures are not mere estimates. They are taken from Gov¬ 
ernment census statistics. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


13 


In speaking to a room trader, that a movement was being initiated 
for the purpose of exposing the rascalities of the Boards of Trade, 
replied: “Any one who tries to uncover the workings of such institu¬ 

tions, is a jackass.” So I will say, ‘‘Let us bray.” After a good 
straight talk, he acknowledged that ‘‘they might have discretionary 
powers as to price making,” and this was all I argued for. 

Mr. X, a friend of mine, sided up to me one day and said ‘‘Mr. 
Howe, my advice to you is to not to give those lectures.” I asked 
why? ‘‘The people will know that you have speculated.” The kind- 
hearted man didn’t know that I began by acknowledging this fact. 

It is my earnest desire to open the eyes of our citizens, who are 
being fearfully and cruelly stung. Many room traders, brokers and 
manipulators may criticise my work, but reader, I have not studied 
this so-called ‘‘business” for thirty years, in order to produce a pipe 
dream. I have been through the mill, and so have tens of thousands 
of others, to their sorrow. I give you inside facts, most of which have 
been established and recorded. The evidence of these tens of thousands 
who have been fleeced, is enough backing to my statements. 

Miss Beatrice, the daughter of a friend of mine, after gazing 
upon, and listening to, the ‘‘daily riot,” of the Chicago Board of 
Trade, looked up to her mother and said, ‘‘Mamma, what kind of 
animals are those down there?” I do not wonder, for here you will 
witness a seething mass of rampant humanity; their gesticulations far 
outshining those of the maniac. Their roarings are like those of the 
‘‘Bulls of Bashan,” and their dancings suggest those of the Dervish. A 
veritable pack of desecrating hoodlums. 

If the citizens of Chicago only knew what they were about and 
what these hawks were about , they would root out this gambling in 
foodstuffs and tip them out neck arid crop. The citizens of Chicago 
have been roundly soaked just the same as anyone else. 

B 

Where there is so much that is beautiful in this world, it is unfor¬ 
tunate that we have to uncover so much that is bad, in order to 
root out error, which has burdened our people for sixty years. Evil, 
or error, must be made so black that we turn from it with loathing. 
My duty in this matter is to present these findings to you for your 
protection. I have endeavored to present the case in such a manner, 
that the Citizens of the United States will be impressed with the enor- 




14 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


mity of the crime that is being perpetrated upon us. The greatest 
woman that ever lived, has said:—“Whatever enslaves man, is opposed 
to the Divine Government.’’ 

Mr. Charles W. Smith, in his excellent work, “The Economic 
Ruin of the World,’’ makes the following dedication: “To HON¬ 
ESTY, the best and what ought to be the only policy—financial, com¬ 
mercial, or political applicable to men as well as to nations. If the 
basis of these policies is dishonest—honest capital, as well as honest 
labour (the most sacred of all capitals) must inevitably suffer.’’ 

He also truthfully says in his “Preface’’: “A Nation that 
desires to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
about these ‘Bull and Bear’ gambling operations in Trade and Finance, 
will have no difficulty of ascertaining it. I find it most difficult to com¬ 
prehend how any honorable man, capable of seeing, reading, thinking, 
and understanding, and of reasonable intelligence, can fail to under¬ 
stand, and is not bitterly antagonistic to these shameful systems, based 
upon blackleg robbery, shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin.’’ He 
hits the nail on the head. 

What I have written as to what is going on in the various Boards 
of Trade, is the truth, if only an infinitessimal portion; and my state¬ 
ments are backed by brokers of long standing and who know, (what 
used to be, but now no longer) the game. 

I write as I see the situation, and there are thousands of others who 
see it in much the same way, but who have not chance, perhaps no 
desire, to publicly voice their conclusions. 

Our people surmise in a general way, that questionable transactions 
are being carried on in these Boards of Trade; but they demand 
concrete evidence to convince. They need to be instructed as to 
methods used and practices imposed; and further there should be 
some real live examples presented, of those who have been injured, 
in order to become fully impressed with the enormity of the crimes 
against the home and nation. 

This book is written, with the hope of puttingr a little crimp in a 
certain manipulator’s wholesale peculations; and it will, if I can induce 
our people to read it. 

Please note throughout my book, that it is the “Economics of the 
Home’’ that are disturbed. That, in itself, is murder. One will under¬ 
stand my personal feelings of grief, when I state that twenty years 
of home life have been taken from me my rabid speculation; and the 
sympathetic sorrow I have for the wrecks that are strewn over our 
country. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


15 


I am not a capitalist, nor a socialist, although I believe in higher 
socialism: the greatest good for the greatest number. Rabid specula¬ 
tion acts to the contrary. 

Higher socialism, I feel sure that we are agreed upon. Trust 
business, we might differ, in some respects. Legitimate business we 
easily agree upon. Illegitimate (sheltered under the false canopy, 
entitled business) or speculative gambling, we should agree at being 
wrong, and wording the largest amount of harm to the greatest number. 

And, my reader, don’t you allow any one high in the speculative 
arena to confuse you, or endeavor to prove to you to the contrary; for 
he could only put up a bundle of untruths, worthless for your use and 
damaging in the extreme! 

C 

Speculation, leaving out the rabid, has such a reputation, at 
present, that if a bank president learns of an employee of his institution 
visiting a broker’s offices, how long before said employee would be 
“called upon the carpet”, or receive a formal ‘‘services no longer 
desired”? And Bucket Shops! well, perish the thought. 

Not only do we need to protect our boys mentally and financially; 
there is also a great moral issue , which overtops all statements herein 
made. 

I have neither given instruction how to trade upon the Boards 
of Trade, nor the raising or distributing of food products, nor how 
corners were run. Matters of executive nature have been well taken 
care of by writers of note. I have shown up the pitfalls and tried to 
present the dangerous side in such a terse and truthful manner, that he 
who reads, may run away saying—from such error and pest “Good 
Lord deliver us.” 

No matter how much I may read market reports, financial news, 
crop statistics, etc., my guesses (yes, I call them guesses, and they are, 
unless you are the boss manipulator) upon future market prices, are 
made strictly from a gambling point of view; which, as markets are now 
run, is about the only safe (?) way. Statistics are a blind, a delusion 
and snare, for the absorption of the hoi polloi; and are used profusely 
by the manipulator as an aid in carrying out his nefarious plans. With 
all my study I can not guess (?) rightly every time. About four out 
of five is my limit. This is a little better than Keene, who used to 
guess rightly four out of seven. Some time ago, a friend was dis¬ 
cussing the pork question. I believed at that time that Dragon would 




16 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


carry the price up after little more decline (he can place the price 
anywhere he pleases) but there were too many trailing after him, and 
he turned upon them and smashed the market price for about $7 a 
barrel, before he quit. At this point, after a session of quiet, I said 
buy all you please; and it has never struck that figure since, and will 
not for many moons. However, I am not in the business, and must 
desist from giving opinions as to future trends of the markets. I might 
state that pork has since struck $29.25. 

During my studies and writings, when I used to occasionally 
look out of my hotel window and gaze upon the exuberant life of 
hundreds of young pupils of the public school, I was given a new 
impetus from time to time, to continue my work in endeavoring to cor¬ 
rect a grievous error, with the hope that at least from such a corner, 
they should not be hampered in their life work. My hope is to get 
people to thinking. That being obtained, something will be accomp¬ 
lished. If in some degree this book might follow “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” 
in helping to release thousands from the slavery of rabid speculation. 
what a blessing it would prove. I will, of necessity use some “Shop 
Talk”, which may be more effectual than artistic. 

Watts said: “Each department of life has its language, ex¬ 
pressive, if not elegant, and in dealing with this subject, we must per¬ 
force adopt the language of the Street.” 

It grieves me that I am forced to chronicle such an array of 
deviltry, when there is so much of goodness in the world that would 
better be presented. But I would be derelict in my duty if I did not, 
in some degree, complete the task I have set before me, for the enlight¬ 
enment and protection of our young people who are to take up the 
burden of running our business and state. 

And when I think of the thousands that are passing through what 
I went through, and are being ruined today, and will be tomorrow, 
my heart goes out to them, and I wish I could abolish this license at 
once. 

Of the Remittance Men, who often lose in this gambling, I say 
but little. They are parasites anyway. But of the fathers of families, 
who are drawn in, I have much to say. 

Marcossen says: “Food and clothes are the essentials of life. 
The man who attempts to corner the staples that provide them in order 
to extort an extravagant profit, and to put his competitor at a dis¬ 
advantage, serves no economic purpose, and, by some mystic rule 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


17 


of retribution, always comes to grief (?). Herein lies the lesson of 
all (?) corners.” I doubt him. I will say this: that a person who 
sells short something that he does not own, with the express purpose 
and determination of depressing the prices of a commodity owned 
by another person, is a traitor to his fellow compatriot and his country. 

The persons engaged in this Board of Trade, so-called ‘‘Business ’, 
are financial parasites. They live upon the passions and weaknesses, 
gains and losses of others. 

We might call them of the genus Epiphyte (plant upon plant) 
better, of Torrubia (plant upon animals, inside and out). Their 
leader. Dragon, is like unto the parasitic Jager Gull, that makes the 
successful gulls that roam along our coasts, disgorge their plunder. 

With fairness, we might liken Dragon’s henchmen unto plant 
lice, or fish lice, called copepods, for they war against and destroy 
parity of production and consumption; and, without right or reason, 
make it more dffficult for us to secure a living. 

Brokers may think that I am bitter against the Boards of Trade. 
In answer to this, I will say that, if thirty years ago, I had been 
possessed of the information I now have, after years of study and 
reading; I never would have invested my money in an absolutely losing 
game. It is for this reason that I desire to inform, warn, and thus 
protect especially our young men, from this fever of rabid gain, this 
desire to get something for nothing; this destroyer of body, mind, and 
that which makes for the better life. Boys, read the books I have 
listed in Appendix 1. 

D 

Where I say Board of Trade, or Chicago Board of Trade I 
mean several scattered throughout the country, together with their sub¬ 
offices. Dragon practically manipulates them all, through one at Chi¬ 
cago. The Chicago quotations are found in every other exchange. 

I realize that I am a diminutive David going up against an 
elephantine Goliah, and my stone is only a few-paged, six by nine, 
book. 

As to what each speculator has specifically wrought, I refer you 
to the books and periodicals given in Appendix 1, and daily papers 
published throughout the United States. 

The stories given throughout the twelve chapters, have for years 
been common property, and I give them about as they were retailed 
to me. With the exception of a few minor details, they are probably 



18 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


correct expositions. Those of my own experiences, I certainly can 
vouch for; and for those given in Appendix II, I have letters in proof, 
and can vouch for their genuineness. These represent various grades 
of deviltry and goodness. 

I do not doubt that many of my readers will ponder somewhat 
over the statements made, and then go right back to the broker’s office 
and don the yoke, forgetting the truths which I have herein embodied. 
They will remember what I have written, after they have lost their 
all, and are down and out. My dear fellow, kindly look at the 
illustration of “Busted and Blighted, yet Reminiscent” before you go 
back, and see if you wish to “jine de chorus.” There may be a joker 
in it, but I assure you that the result of an active participation is no 
joke. 

The Bucket Shops, the so-called illegitimate children of the Board 
of Trade, are being hounded to death by their parent, and yet they are 
only carrying on the same questionable game as their parent, a veritable 
case of Ishmael. Is that consistent? 

In speaking of my book of information and protection, some 
replied, “The people want to be humbugged. They want as much 
of the element of chance as possible.” This might have been so in the 
time of Barnum, but I believe that the up-to-date men and women 
desire, and earnestly, to know the truth in all matters temporal and 
spiritual. Illusions in the past were perhaps greatly enjoyed for a 
season, until dispelled; but this illusion, deception and snare, is a 
serious one, debasing and disastrous in the extreme, a thousand times 
worse than nothing. 

Listen to Hamlin, governor of the Federal Reserve Board: 

“There is a tendency in this country toward unwarranted specu¬ 
lative activity. Brokers have issued warnings in vain. Margins have 
been increased. The relations between investment and speculation, for 
the time being, are ruptured. They are giving fictitious values to un¬ 
stable securities. They are building on a foundation of hope and 
fancy.” 

Following this with the hypothesis that there are three kinds of 
untruths, “lies, damn lies, and statistics”; and that “figures can be 
made to prove anything”; we might consider Rabid Speculation as 
an entrance into the “fourth” dementia. 

A large portion of this work is a confidential man-to-man talk, given 
in the usual conversational tone carried on during an ordinary casual 
meeting. I believe my readers will enjoy this better than if I seemed 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


19 


to be up in the clouds and far away. Boys, I am with you, so lets 
sit down and read together. 

While most of the matter included is of a very serious nature 
I will digress, once in a while, and “blow in’’ a little merriment, as it 
were, with some frivolous doggerel now' and then. There are matters 
of such foolish nature, that occur from time to time, that one wonders 
at the twist some brains will take when under stress of circumstances. 

While at times they fly around as if a scorpion had pricked them, 
at other times they are afflicted with “mal mesmerism or mental apathy.’’ 

Although a few stories are included in the book proper, others 
are given in Appendix II, and more will be given in future editions. 

One person said to me that if he had not speculated, he could 
now be holding a position with a salary of $1 5,000 to $25,000. When 
I asked him to write out his experience for insertion in my book, he 
said “No, just let me forget it, if I can.’’ Forget it if I can! That 
is the sad chant of millions. I respected his feelings and ceased to urge 
further. 

If those of my readers who have felt the fangs of the Dragon, 
will send me a truthful and explicit account of how they were drawn 
in and how much they lost, I will be glad to make use of it in future 
editions. By so doing, you will be a help and protection to thousands 
of your fellow beings. No names will be given without permission. 

The day of “admiration for the banker, broker or financier, 
through whose agency our money has been lost’’, is over. We now 
demand exposure and restitution, and we are getting it. 

After the water is well out of our stocks, we will have less of 
such questionable business. Through our mail, and telegraph service 
(as soon as our Government takes this over) we will easily get at them. 

Now there is Henry Clewes. He is a fellow I would like for a 
friend. From the bottom of his heart, he wishes to have the Wall 
Street Stock Exchange run right; but he knows that it can’t be run 
properly, until marginal trading and short selling are abolished. 

E 

There are such a multitude of “Tricks’’ used to deceive the 
public, that we have space for only a few out of hundreds that are 
played. They say that speculation is “a science requiring exceptional 
talent.’’ Yes, as carried on at Chicago, New York City, and some 
other centers, it is a science in Rascality. 



20 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Our Government leaders should remember that we are not 
dealing with a novice when we run up against the Chicago Board 
of Trade. We are running up against the craftiest robber of them 
all. You must use his tactics, if you would get at him. With a 
person of Dragon’s calibre, at the helm, you must use the utmost 
secrecy, as he does. You must bribe as he does. You must gather 
your data as carefully as he does, and verify it as often. 

Some may say that I am a socialist. That would not be such 
a questionable name to have, would it? However, up to the time of 
writing this paragraph (1916) I never attended a socialist meeting. 

Some may say that I am not loyal to my country, speaking and 
writing as I do. Surely, I (who hail from the land of Whittier, Haw¬ 
thorne and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward; who am descended from two 
Colonial Governors of Massachusetts; from Anne Dudley Bradstreet, 
the first poetess of New England; from a line of military men who 
fought on Bunker Hill and in the war of 1812; and whose relatives 
represent some of the flower of philanthropy, moral and civic progress, 
namely—George Peabody, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Ellery 
Channing, Wendell Phillips, Richard H. Dana, Elias Howe, and many 
inventors and artists) can not be anything but loyal. I am chastizing our 
legislators in order that they and our citizens may be awakened to 
recognize this evil, and correct it; not aid and abet. 

Some of my readers may say, as our Massachusetts Governor, John 
D. Long, said of Wendell Phillips, that I am “more admirable in 
intent than expression.” 

An acquaintance, and former room trader, who has several times 
“received it in the neck”, said, in answer to my announcing the publica¬ 
tion of this work, “The people will pay no attention to your book until 
they are caught and learn a lesson, as we have.” I am of a different 
opinion. The up-to-date young man and woman desires to be correctly 
informed. This earnest desire for truth is growing every year. I 
believe this book will be appreciated. 

In speaking to one person, in regard to the various rascalities being 
carried on upon these boards and exchanges he said: “I thought it 
was necessary to have marginal gambling to create sufficient stock busi¬ 
ness.” Yes, it is necessary, in order to work you into the jaws of the 
manipulator. 

I have written this book as I would write it for the enlightenment 
and protection of my own son. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 21 


The stories related serve to show the real and devilish workings 
of “Dragon and his Juggernaut”, and Dragons in other fields. One 
can apply these right down the line from Board of Trade, Wall Street, 
Broker s Offices and Bucket Shops. All turn out the same sort of 
sad grist. Those who doubt my statements, read from the Reference 
Books, a list which will be found in Appendix I. 

F 

You may say, why not expatiate a little upon Dragon’s good 
points? Didn’t he do something to redeem himself? These points 
already have been magnified out of all proportion to his bad ones. 
Reiteration, at this age is bad form. I have tried to show the public, 
what has never before been presented to them in all its enormity, espe¬ 
cially gambling in our food products. As “The Globe” said of Rocke¬ 
feller and like creatures, “We are not unaware of their many good 
qualities. But that does not effect the real issue of which Rockefeller 
(Dragon) is a symbol.” Tens of thousands are by him furnished work. 
Yes, and why not be content with this? Why induce other tens of 
thousands, using his enormous power for deception, to part with their 
money for nothing, bringing untold suffering to thousands of families? 

Prof. William Ostwald’s “Economic Oscillations” and “Wave 
Movements” are abnormally stretched or utterly annihilated by Dragon’s 
tactics; and Norman Angell, in his “The Great Illusion”, could not 
use his theories with Dragon’s unrighteous manipulations. 

This swindler is standing in the way of God’s progress, deceiving 
the people, right and left. 

What an awful position to take! Think of it, my friends. Stand¬ 
ing in the way of the Ruler of the Universe. 

Here he is deceiving and ruining thousands, yes, millions of God’s 
creations. What a lovely occupation for any decent person to be 
engaged in. He ought to hang his head in shame at such conduct; 
and bringing such destruction and sorrow upon humanity. What will 
the Divine Ruler meet out to such an one? Will his last days be as 
sad and sorrowful as his father’s? 

What is a swindler? Webster says “A swindler, is one who 
swindles or defrauds grossly; one who makes a practice of defrauding 
others by imposition or deliberate artifice.” The last two words 
especially fit the case. 

Dragon considers us, who are workers in grain and vineyards, his 





22 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


slaves and his special province for robberies; in like manner of the 
buccaneering barons of old; and disrespects us accordingly. What 
were women considered in those days? Chattels! 

Dragon considers us meet and drink for his hoppers. War, in 
the time of the Robber Barons, was considered the only respectable 
business; and this financial warring buccaneer, licensed and protected 
by the Government of the United States, considers his deviltries re¬ 
spectable. 

It is said that previous to the time of these “Barons”, the ruling 
government, not being able to quell the robbers, made a bargain with 
them. They were to give a royalty from each robbing, and thus they 
were licensed and became “Respectable.” Isn’t the present position 
of the C. B. of T. and the U. S. of A. a parallel case, with the bad 
actors transposed, and, as it were, “the cart before the horse”? This 
is also said to have been the beginning of levying of the “Poll Tax” 
upon the peoples of the world. 

This is the anomalous position that our Government is in. It 
licenses this Chicago Board of Trade, and then makes laws to curb the 
rascalities carried on there, and seemingly has no power to enforce 
them. 

During the present war. Dragon has taken advantage of this 
catastrophe, and will clean up somewhere between $40,000,000 and 
$60,000,000. 

He probably considers that he is financially elevated in accordance 
with “divine right of kings.” He will hold to that thought until the 
Government topples him from such an abnormal and erroneous perch. 
That old doctrine may go in Europe and the Orient, but not with us. 

G 

While Elbert S. Brigham, Commissioner of Agriculture for the 
state of Vermont, and others are endeavoring to preserve a proper parity 
between production and consumption, supply and demand, Dragon is 
using his capital and gambling paraphernalia to destroy this happy 
medium, where both producer and consumer can meet on common 
ground and poverty lessened, and is successful. His crimes go untram¬ 
melled and unpunished. 

A writer of Springfield, Ill., states: “Poverty is a breeding place 
for commercialized vice.” According to the Illinois senate white slave 
investigating committee, “Poverty is the principal cause of immortality. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


23 


Poverty creates in the home a breeding place for commercialized vice.” 
According to the Illinois senate white slave investigating committee, 
“Poverty is the principal cause, direct or indirect of immorality. 
Thousands of girls, it says, are driven into prostitution, because of sheer 
inability to keep body and soul together.” And we have in this country 
a Hydra-headed monster whom I call Dragon, this swindling criminal 
who, with all of his commercial backing (which means hundreds of 
millions), and years of accumulated gambling paraphernalia at his 
beck and call, producing these conditions. 

This book does not strike at those merchants doing a legitimate 
business in the Board Room of the Juggernaut. They are about the 
only redeeming feature. May they in time, be the only traders in the, 
at present, American Monte Carlo of Wind Speculation. Of Dragon’s 
“evasion of railroad rates”, “refrigerator freezeouts” or “competitors 
undermined”, I say but little. Some Packers are fined to-day $1 1 7,000. 
Piffle! 

Dean Swift wrote: “We can see what estimate God places upon 
wealth, as He bestows it upon some of the meanest of all of His crea¬ 
tions.” We might add a few lines that a talented tramp was heard 

“A little thieving is a dangerous part , 

But stealing largely is a noble art; 

'Trvas mean to rob a henroost of a hen , 

But stealing thousands maizes us gentlemen .” 

Maple, in searching history, found that, “Two hundred years 
ago there stood on the English statute a law which forbade the noble¬ 
man, when he went hunting on a cold day, to kill more than two serfs 
to warm his hands in their bodies.” 

While appreciating the enormity of Dragon Junior’s crimes, I 
blame the Government about as much as I do him. As I have written 
in a following chapter, he should be protected from himself. Like 
“Phaeton”, his horses are carrying him on to moral destruction. As 
a husband and father, as far as I know, he is faithful and true. As a 
philanthropist, he is a semi-failure. 

As a financial buccaneer, he is a success. But of his wages, I 
want nothing of them. Here we jail thousands who take from us a loaf 
of bread or $10,000, and allow these windy robbers who relieve us of 
hundreds of millions, to live in gilded palaces. 

My dear reader, put this in your pipe and smoke it. Since the 
year 1872, or thereabouts, to say nothing of many failures, has any 





24 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


surface trader on the Chicago Board of Trade ever run more than one 
successful wheat corner? Name the successful ones, Lyon, Hutchinson, 
Harper; Pardridge, and Leiter (possible exceptions) Phillips, Cudahy, 
Fairbanks and Patten. Lyon, Partridge and Patten, stand out excep¬ 
tional examples of keen surface men. 

Lyon and Pardridge were soon eliminated after Dragon became 
active and Patten was careful enough to take the side of Dragon in his 
success of 1908-9. Dragon later secured a million and a half from 
Patten, before Patten “woke up.’’ 

It is useless for anyone to try two consecutive big deals at this 
date. It is also very dangerous to try even one. “The Dragon’l git you, 
if you don’t watch out”, with apologies to the wraith of Riley. Even 
“Deacon” Drew, after becoming a “down and out”, said “To ‘speci- 
late’ in Wall Street, when you are no longer an insider, is like buying 
cows by candle light.” The Great Plunger, Dan Sully, after his 
wings had been clipped, said, “We must have Governmental control 
and supervision over cotton.” How much more do we need it over 
Food Products. Between the pilferings of Dragon, “Rockefeller- 
Stillman” crowd, and several other grafting combinations, including 
the “Steelers”, we will, in time, according to some, be as the Roman 
slaves, glad to accept anything. 

H 

I do not give information as to the amount of wheat grown, now 
in the hands of the farmer; distribution, consumption, etc. That is 
splendidly taken care of by able writers. As I previously said, I stick 
close to the “Speculative Gambling” side of the subject. Dragon 
Junior has had this error burden thrust upon him, so do not think too 
hard of him, but reserve some of your bitter denunciation for our Sena¬ 
tors and Representatives now encumbering the sacred Halls at Wash¬ 
ington. I strike Dragon Junior severely, and do so, that he may be 
awakened to the error of his ways, and the enormity of them. 

I can realize how the “old timers” enjoy an occasional meander 
into the scene of financial carnage; and they will prance like war 
horses, upon inhaling the scent of smoke of battle. It brings back 
old times, old scenes; and these old sinners in this field of human 
activities, love to ruminate and enter the reminiscent, amid the ticking 
of wire instruments, rustle of the tape, chalk scratching upon the quota¬ 
tion board, passing shop talk, etc. I do not expect to reach these 
hardened pachyderms. It is the young men and women I am after. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


25 


and I depend upon the parents to assist. They should see that their 
sons secure this book from their local library, and see that they carefully 
read it; better still, if the parent reads with them. If faithfully carried 
out, I feel confident that our boys and girls will be well protected from 
Rabid Speculation. 

To whom shall I specially turn for assistance? To the women. 
The American woman, God bless her, is not afraid of anything nor any¬ 
one, when it comes to defending her home and loved ones. 

I 

I herewith thank those who have assisted me from time to time. 
Writers, to whom credit has been given throughout the work. To a 
few Chicago brokers, with whom I passed portions of many days in 
interesting and instructive converse, gaining truths I could not secure 
from any other source; who innocently unbosomed themselves for my 
edification and the enlightenment of the gulled public; during such time 
as I was upon the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. To the 
Commission Agents and different Bucket Shop Proprietors, for the evi¬ 
dence they also submitted for my use. To the room trader who 
innocently dubbed me a “Jackass”, and stirred me to renewed activity; 
to a noted Ex-Judge, for kind advice relative to the subject treated. 
To a Chief of Police for careful revision. To the “Daily Bulletin” 
of the workings of the Board of Trade, and daily papers, for tran¬ 
scriptions of telegraph dope, for varied truths and untruths disseminated. 
To those who have presented me with personal accounts of disasters to 
homes of our Republic. To various periodicals, books and papers; and 
for excerpts (see List of Appendix I.) To the Assistant Librarians of 
a Carnegie Library, for timely references, and those who furnished 
appropriate sketches for half-tone, namely: Miss Sarette Manter and 
Mrs. Grace Jack-Ketcham. To those who have reviewed my manu¬ 
scripts, from these I specially mention a broker of fifteen years’ experience 
(see his letter. No. 1 of Appendix II.) ; and those who have written 
letters of sad experiences, and others who have commended my lectures 
and book. Those who subscribed liberally to the balance needed to 
finance the First Edition. 

To a young lady who invited me to assist in the divine services of 
a Christian Science Church, where I received some of my best thoughts 
for this work; to One who advised my retention for the regular incum¬ 
bency; and, in conjunction with others, gave needed advice and encour¬ 
agement in certain uplifting studies; and to the members and supporters of 





26 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


this same church, for corporial sustenance while writing and collating for 
the last four years. 

To the eminent Attorney, Charles D. Fullen, I am deeply in¬ 
debted, for erudite information and various citations, decisions and 
arguments of real educational value, which should receive most wrapt 
attention. These will be found in Chapter XI. These were not 
handed me until nearly all of my work was written. They were such 
verification of my statements, that I included a portion, with his per¬ 
mission, in this volume. Mr. Fullen is a past-master in the knowledge of 
the workings of the Chicago Board of Trade. Here is a man, who, 
if our supine Government really desired to uncover this rascal, is fully 
competent to do so. With this case in his hands, he would show up 
Dragon in the role of a financial pirate, and do this in a legal way. 
When will we have a President with backbone enough to order this to 
be carried out? We can not hope to have the hundreds of millions 
already taken from us, to be turned back to the States from which they 
were taken. But we do have a right to keep other millions from going 
into Dragon’s hopper. 

I am indebted to my brother, with whom I passed many blissful 
years in Boston, who, after I had acquired some knowledge of specula¬ 
tion from him, was sorely tried because of my stubborn continuance 
in practice at that time; and who has grieved because of my serious 
study since then. He little knows how much good this experience may 
work for our people, if they believe me; and how much they will bless 
him for his share in preparing me for this work. 

I am deeply grateful to my cousin. Miss Clara M. Bixby of Cali¬ 
fornia, a devoted student of Christian Science, for past encouragement 
in my art and while writing this book; and who provided funds for half¬ 
tone plates, and later, a generous loan for the purpose of beginning the 
work of publication, so that the work could be given much sooner 
to the people. 

I desire one thousand attested evidences, from those who have 
had their homes or loved ones wrecked by speculation, for future 
editions of the work. I will not use names of victims, nor of those who 
report, unless so authorized. Also matter (data or story) bearing upon 
this subject, will be gratefully received. Send all communications care 
of the Publishers of this work. 

In closing, I wish to say that if I was writing a sermon upon such 
questionable transactions as are now being carried on, especially in 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


27 


Chicago, I would take for my text the following: Isaiah, Fifth Chapter, 
1 8th Verse and parts of the Twentieth Verse. “Woe unto them that 
draw iniquity with the cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart 
rope. Woe unto them that call evil good, that put darkness for 
light, that put bitter for sweet.” And First Corinthians, Tenth Chapter, 
Twelfth Verse, “Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take 
heed lest he fall.” 

Respectfully submitted. 

The Author. 



















































THE AMERICAN MONTE CARLO 



CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE IN 1872 
Marginal Option Trading Worked Here—The Greatest 
Swindle of the Age 


EARLY DAYS IN A CANAL BOAT 
Mistake Not Toadstools for Mushrooms 



THE CRUEL PITS 
Where Hard-Earned Millions Disappear 


THE HEARTLESS BROKER 
Some of Dragon’s Henchmen 

































































• 










. 















































































• 













\ • 





SUBJECTS 

AND 

SUB HEADINGS 
CHAPTER ONE 


Introduction 


Some Evils that Have Been Eradicated in Years Past—The 
Juggernaut and Driver Dragon—Deceitful, Crafty, Wily—Spec¬ 
ulative Gambling of Sixty Years—Patrician and Plebian Are 
Drawn Into the Vortex— No Low Socialistic Propaganda—Specula¬ 
tion a Fine Art—Speculation Versus Gambling— E. W. Smith on 
“Futures”—President Roosevelt—Slight Ramble Into History Of 
Speculation From 1200 to 1850 —The Mississippi Bubble—Celebrated 
Writers—Kings and Barons of Finance—The Great Promoters—Birds 
of a Feather—Man Slavery—Cotton Gamblers—Lotteries—Trusts 
and Election Frauds—Investigation Farces—Speculation Defined—• 
The Juggernaut of Speculation: A Curse and One Crime of the 
Century— A Whirlpool of Ecstasy and Despair—Dragon, the Smooth¬ 
est Criminal of Speculative History— A Sure Thing Operator—Ter¬ 
rible Power that Unsettles the World’s Bread — Wrecker and 
Destroyer of Thousands of Homes. 


CHAPTER TWO 


One Man Power 


Gambler, Speculator, Financier—One Man Power—Contrary to 
Our Constitution—Carries Prices to Abnormal Heights and Depths 
—Thwarts the Interest and Will of the People—Love of Power and 
Wicked Use—Human Nature Weak—Dragon and Patten—Jugger¬ 
naut, a Mammoth Bucket Shop—Little Juggernauts Have Disap¬ 
peared Like the Red Men—Dragon Uses Trickery, Exalted Into a 
Science—Every High Card Marked—Mere Operator Has Less 
Chance Than a Bettor Upon a Horse Race—Not Even Straight 
Gambling—A Combination That Cannot Be Beaten. 


CHAPTER THREE 


The Juggernaut and Dragon 


The Juggernaut Terrible in Its Power—Taken Hundreds of 
Millions From the People, Giving in Return, Sorrow, Disaster and 
Ruin—Standard Oil Said to Be Back of Many Enormous Deals— 
Dollar Wheat and Three Dollar Flour, the Dream of the Alchimist 










32 


DrtAGCN AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


—Bucket Shop Not Moke Pernicious Than the Board of Trade— 
95%, Some Say 99%, Is Gambling in Food Prices—Devastator of the 
Home—Fathers of Families Ruined in Thirty Seconds—History of 
the Chicago Board of Trade—Began in 1848, Daily Sessions in 1856 
Mental Machinery Started by Dutch and English Importers— 
Necessity Prostituted to Base Gambling—Benjamin P. Hutchinson 
Started Scalping—Lyon Followed—Armour Came Into the Game 
Through a Disastrous Corn Deal—Cudahy, Pardridge, Sturgis, 
Harper, Phillips, Leiter and Patten Joined the Buccaneers, and 
Soon There Were “Sixteen Men On a Dead Man’s Chest”, Etc.— 
Dragon Senior Soon Brought System and Order Out of Chaos, Filling 
His Own Chest and Sitting Tight—He Invented All Sorts of Tricks 
to Trap the Unwary, and in Time Broke Or Badly Bent Nearly All 
of the Above Buccaneers—Anomalous Changes Are Wondered At— 
The Delany Article. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


Corners, and Many Other Devilish Things 


Joseph’s Egyptian Corner, Constructive — American Corners, 
Destructive and Uneconomic—Cotton Corners—So-Called “Patton 
“Corner,” Tile Author Foretold Ten Months Before Consummation— 
$1.20 Should Have Been Enough for Dragon if Patten Had Not 
Butted In—Dragon Senior Broke Lyon, Harper, Sturgis, McGoc, 
the Keene Corner, Flood and O’Brien Corner, Leiter, Coster-Martin, 
Phillips; and Badly Bent Pardridge, Cudahy, and Many Others— 
The Unspeakable Fidelity Bank Failure—Ruin, Suicide, Felon’s 
Cells, Broken Hearts of Mothers, Wives and Sweethearts, Followed 
in Its Wake—Nevada Bank Failure—Mackay Put Up Several Mil¬ 
lions to Save It—Pardridge and Lyon Deals—Russia’s Attempt at 
One Corner—Same Tricks Befuddle the Brainiest From Year to 
Year—Joseph Leiter Corners—Frenzied Financiers Stop Short Only 
of the Penitentiary—Heavy Operators Sometimes Recieve the Solar 
Plexus—Cudahy Should Have Passed Out With $25,000,000 to His 
Credit; Left Only About $3,000,000 —Russell Sage Loses Seven Mil¬ 
lions—All the World Is Dragon’s Spy—“Pit” Afraid of Dragon— 
Why Butt Up Against Such a Confidence Game?—Last Days of 
Dragon Senior. 


CHAPTER FIVE 


The Powerful System 


A System Employed, Pernicious and Blighting to the Individual 
—How Victims Are Drawn Into the Vortex—Secrets of the Board 
of Trade Exposed—An Example—Author’s Personal Experience— A 
Similar Case—The Quotation Board Hypnotizes—In the Toils of 
the Dragon—Tricks That Are Played— Lo, tile Poor Debtor— A Few 
Are Lucky and Thousands Are Wrecked—Ghosts of Wall and La 
Salle Streets—“Amalgamated” and “Juggernaut” Compared— 
Straddles and Spreads—Program Varied From Day to Day— How 
Dragon Baits the Game—Hog Cholera Trick—Dragon Fond of 












DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


33 


Goats to Throw Credit Upon for Great Sweeps of Values—Some 
of His Goats Were Hutchinson, Partridge, Phillips, Patten, Leitek, 
and Harper—Patten, the Strongest “Surface Man” Ever Upon the 
Board—Government Very Foolish to Subpoena Big Holders to Secure 
Incriminating Evidence—L o, the Poor Lamb—“It Is Difficult to Get 
Rid of the Corpse.” 


CHAPTER SIX 


Short Selling and Other Errors 


Paradoxical Definition— A Little Doggerel—It Is the Short Seller 
That Gets You (Sometimes)—Try to Sell Short Some Bank Shares 
and See Where You Will Land—Much Telegraph Matter Is Pure, 
or Rather, Impure “Bunk”— Now Well in the Toils of the Dragon— 
Quotation From Burke—The Losses, Wire Expense, Commissions, 
Membership Fees, and Other Graft, a Tremendous Drain Upon Our 
People—From 1874 to 1894 tiie South Was Defrauded in Cotton 
Trading $500,000,000—Dragon Takes Advantage of War, Fire, Flood, 
Disease, Various Calamities and Wrong Reports—Manipulators Will 
Stoop to Anything to Gain Tiieir Ends—Note How the Farmer Is 
Fooled— A Farmer Upon Speculation—About 2% Gain and 98% Lose— 
No Chance to Win In This Wind and Water Game—Why the Author 
Quit Speculating—More Tricks—Bleatings of the Shorn Lambs— 
List of Shorn Lambs Are Never Published—It Is the ‘‘Lure of Easy 
Money”—Difficult to Keep Away From Speculation—Women 
Gamblers, Hollow Eyed, Haggard Looks and Pale Complexions. 


CHAPTER SEVEN 


Various Stories and Holdups 


Examples of Downright Sneak Thievery—The Ruining of Peter 
McGoc —Wealthy Men On Bended Knees, Begging Dragon to Let 
Them Up— A Baptist Preacher, One Goat—Deacon Daniel Drew, 
Pastor and Flock; a Shearing of $700,000 —Russell Sage and Pastor 
—Pastors Were Used to Decoy Numerous Gulls—Jay Gould and 
John W r . Gates—Gates and Country Boy— A Fever-Struck Son— 
Dragon Senior Ran Many Firms Out of Business. 


CHAPTER EIGHT 


And Yet More Tricks Played Upon The Lambs 


A Diabolical Holdup— A New York Trick A London Trick Wind 
Markets Rule the Prices for Legitimate Trade—One Cause of High 
Cost of Living—The Manipulator Robs the Producer and Consumer 
—Daily Market Review Excuses Often of the Flimsiest Nature 
Bank Share Holder and Toiling Cultivator of the Soil—Opinions of 
Experts—Millions Taken and Nothing Given in Return Bank 











34 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Defaultings and Wreckings Hushed Up—House Racing vs. “Genteel 
Gambling” — Ninety-Nine Trades Out of One Hundred Are 
Bets— $10,000,000 Lost Some Panic Days by Gamblers in Wind Wheat 
—Deliveries, a Farce; the Losses, the Real and Serious Side—May 
the Day of the Manipulator and Plunger Soon Pass— 85% of Mar¬ 
gins Put Up Lost; One Broker Admitted 90% —Hog Price Joker—En¬ 
terprising Dope—Long and Short of the Market—Three Trick 
Schedules—A Trick 30 or 40 Years Old—Wretched “Slaughter 
House Tenements”, and Delightful “Pullman Tenements” Com¬ 
pared—Look Upon This and Then Upon That—Chicago Board of 
Trade and Christian Endeavorers. 


CHAPTER NINE 


Remedies Proposed By The Author 


The Educational System, Same as Applied to the Saloon, Dope 
and White Slave—An Act Penalizing Short Selling— A Matter for 
the United States Secret Service—Depredations of Dragon Continue 
Year After Year—Wigwagging $5,000 and Accrued Profits (?) On 
Paper, for a Credit of $1,500,000 —Wiiat Can Dragon Do Backed By 
$500,000,000? —Dragon Well Intrenched— No Combination But Our 
Government Can Stop Him—This Monster Wins So Much, That He 
Fears to Invest It In This Country—One Pot Of $32,000,000 Was 
Found In Europe— How About the Income and Other Taxes Lost by 
the Government?—Dragon Will Clear This Year (1915) Not Less 
Than $10,000,000, and Perhaps Not More Than $20,000,000, Giving 
Wind Which He Does Not Even Own, In Return—The Author’s 
Prophesies Were Carried Out, Far Beyond His Figures—Garbed 
Under “Business”, Our Boys Do Not Know That It Is Gambling— 
Letter From Leader In Progressive Economics— How To Draw 
Dragon’s Fangs—Wheat Carried During the Late War, From 88%c 
to $1.67, and Much Higher Later. Were Corners, Although Our Peo¬ 
ple Did Not Realize It—Counterfeiter and Dragon Compared—Young 
Heirs to Estates the Easiest Gulls to Manipulate—Gambling, a 
Curse to Both Parties Betting, and a Curse to Our Country— No 
Person Should Be Allowed to Take Millions From Our People, Giving 
Wind in Return—Liquor Traffic Compared. 


CHAPTER TEN 


Legal Citations And Conclusions 


The Legal Battle Between the Chicago Board of Trade and 
Bucket Shops—Excerpts From Brief of Attorney Charles D. Fullen 
—Legal Rulings and Statements By Judges Grosscup, Anderson and 
Mulky That Endorse the Writer of This Work—Our Citizens are 
Patient and Long Suffering—Millions of Families Badly Hit While 
Dragon Goes On Adding Fortune to Fortune—Unbalances Our Eco¬ 
nomic Structure—Our Presidents Do Not Realize. Op, Afraid to Grap¬ 
ple—At Present, Our Government Is to Blame—Hutchinson Acknow¬ 
ledged That His Corner Hurt the People—By the Twist of the 










DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


35 


Finger, Dragon Can Bring Disaster To a Thousand Families—Why 
Does Our Government License Such a Stupendous Evil? — The 
Heartless Broker—Concluding Recommendations—A Direct Appeal 
To Dragon. 


APPENDIX I. 


A List of Reference Books, Periodicals, Etc. 


APPENDIX II. 


Letters From Those Who Have Been Bitten and Lacerated by 
Dragon. 










/ 


Lo, this is the man that made not Cod his strength; but trusted in the 
abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.'' 
— Ps. 52: 7. 

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the 
city’- • • Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him 

out of his place ." — Job 27: 16 and 23. 

CHAPTER ONE 


Introduction 


In presenting this work which is written for the purpose of assisting 
in uncovering a gross and grievous error, an error acknowledged in a 
general way, but not specifically understood and appreciated in its 
enormity; I seriously and prayerfully extend to the reader for his edifica¬ 
tion, thoughts and carefully made deductions that have been surging 
through my brain for some thirty years, relative to an institution which 
is and has been, for the last fifty or sixty years, luring, crushing and 
grinding our humans into the pulp of disaster and ruin. 

Why this financial Juggernaut, with its Drivers, has been allowed 
to roam at large over our beloved country, spreading a network of 
speculative miasma, blasting homes that have been reared and carried 
on under the grandest banner ever swung to the breeze, coupled with 
Divine Love; I am unable to fathom. Like leeches they continue to 
suck the life blood of both young and old. 

By the most crafty deceit and wily tricks imaginable, they have 
been undermining the honesty and probity of a portion of our people, 
and continue to draw into their nets, those of high and low estate; from 
the bank president to the clerk; from those high in authority to the 
common laborer. 

The Driver of this Juggernaut, like the Dragon of Niebelungen, 
scatters destruction and leaves dry bones along his pathway. Like the 
Octopus, he saps the energies of our people, wherever his tentacles may 
reach. 

Here is a human that has been educated to deceive the world! 
What an education. 

He is trying to emulate (without philanthropy) John D. Rocke¬ 
feller (God forbid) in becoming one of the richest men of America, 
by robbing, not only the poor hard working people, but also the middle 


38 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


class and rich. All grist is baited for, and he succeeds in hooking 
all classes. 

Dragon takes advantage of Drought, Hail, Wind, Rain, Frosts, 
Floods and Fire; and Thistle, Cactus, Cockle, Wheat-Thief, Wild 
Mustard; diseases of Scab, Smut, Rust, Leaf-Blight, Powdery-Mil¬ 
dew; and such pests as Marauding Hessian Fly, Chinch-Bug, Wheat 
Plant, Wheat Midge, Wheat Plant-Louse, Grasshopper, Green Bug, 
Straw Worm, Bulb-Worm, Saw-Fly, Army-worm, Granery-weavil, and 
Grain-moth. He can make a mountain out of a mole hill, with these 
agile gnawing swarms; and does so to his own advantage. 

He is like that specimen of genus homo, who is able to sell us a 
lot upon the map; and when we conclude to improve it we would have 
to hire a diver to find it. 

The Devilish Tricks that He Daily Frames Up, in order to 
Deceive the Poor Fish, are Many and Subtle. 

The salted mine is a method of the past. Boosted capital of 
Trusts, is looked upon with suspicion; but, not poor by any means, we 
still have a relative of this buccaneering financier with us. 

Dragon is the most powerful and dangerous robber of the present 
time; disturbing, as he does, the normal prices of the food products 
of the world, even to far-away Zanzibar. 

When I rap Dragon, I am also rapping the system he presides 
over, and also our Government, which is, in a great measure, culpable; 
and should be placed upon the rack of publicity. 

The usual person whom Dragon induces to enter these gambling 
halls soon becomes hypnotized and sadly influenced to his personal ruin 
and dismantlement of his household gods. 

His few short hours of gain, are filled with excitement and fidgety 
dreams, rather than happiness. His feelings are more like the ecstatic 
musings of maniac; and he should not be allowed to occupy any respon¬ 
sible position. A sanitarium would be the proper place for him. 

Many soon become rabid and unfit for the usual business of life. 

Like the man who enters the dram shop, he becomes an enemy 
to himself and a terror to his family. 

It was said of Dragon, probably by a wag, that “he became 
such a master of efficiency, that he mourned himself into an early grave, 
because of his inability to utilize the one wasted product of the profitless 
pig—namely, the squeal.” 

The ramifications of the Chicago Board of Trade are so inti- 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


39 


mately connected with other commercial interests, that it is difficult to get 
at the gambling section. 

At some former age, it used to be the fashion to knock a man 
down with a club and take away his wife, daughters and money. It 
is so in some foreign countries now; to say nothing of Mexico. To-day, 
they endeavor to take your money away from you, by a smoother 
process; by hypnotizing you; so this which I am giving you, is one 
form of the smoother or hypnotizing process. 

Some one said: “If you know of evil being carried on, it is your 
bounden duty to uncover it for the benefit of mankind. If I had no 
other incentive for writing a work upon this subject, this one admon¬ 
ition would be sufficient. 

At the outset, I wish to disabuse your minds of any low socialistic 
tendencies in this book. Higher Socialism, I am sure that we are 
agreed upon. The greatest good to the greatest number. Trust Busi¬ 
ness, we might differ upon. Legitimate Business we easily agree upon. 
Illegitimate, garbed under business, or Speculative Gambling, we should 
agree, as being wrong, and working the largest amount of harm to the 
greatest number. 

No one knows better where the Pit is, than he who falls into 
it; and no one is more capable of truthfully dilating upon the insidious 
environments, than he who remains there or studies the Pit for decades. 

Bryan says: “Can we explain how a red cow can eat green grass 
and give white milk which produces yellow butter”? Neither can we 
explain how this fellow can slaughter so many million animals, make 
so many fine decoctions and canned combinations so useful to humans; 
and at the same time, impose wind wheat, corn and pork, upon us. But 
how our people bite at this spurious bait. 

Here, in this Board of Trade, is a place where, contrary to the 
revered Lincoln, most of the people are fooled most of the time. 

Here they are robbed, as were the South African slaves by the 
late Leopold, King of the Belgians. 

Here, they exact a thousand times more tribute than did the 
Robber Barons of the Middle Ages; and like a blooming pack of 
dray horses, we not only allow them to burden us; we also license 
them to pirate upon us in the extreme. 

Don’t the people deserve to be pillaged? Those who know 
that it is a swindling game? But there are thousands of our young 
people who do not know. They are the ones we wish to reach. 




40 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


As I mentioned in the Preface, the broker’s roarings are like unto 
the bulls of Bashan; and their dancings suggest those of the Dervish. 

If this was all they accomplished, we still would not cavil. But 
it isn’t. These roarings and dancings, mean mental and bodily suffering 
for some, poverty and suicide for others, and home ruin. This is what 
we object to; and that is why I am here before you with this book. 

As in the case of proverbial gossips, “At every word a reputation 
dies’’; so with these dervishes, at each finger apparition that breaks 
the horizon of pit-iless humanity; some poor sinner is ousted from a 
financial activity, and finds gall and bitterness where he expected sweet 
repose. 

As there were two Standard Oils, so there are two departments 
to this Juggernaut. One, a trust business, not half bad, except when 
they sell embalmed beef to our soldiers; and one, Rabid Speculation, 
nothing worse in the world carried on under the title of “Business.’’ I 
shall refer to the latter in the following pages. 

Here is a specimen simile of their work; 

When you buy, and then sell or close out your option, you carry 
out what is termed a “Round Turn.’’ No commodity is passed, nor 
is there any intention of such act. 

This is the same as if you ordered A. to buy you a horse and 
then to sell it, and you pay him $5 or $10 for doing this. You don’t 
see the horse, and you don’t want to see it. It may be a mule for all 
you know. You only hope to sell the horse for a little more than you 
paid for it. In case you ordered A. to sell a horse you didn’t own, 
or never expected to own, you hope that A. will be able to buy this 
wind horse back again for a little less than he sold it for. Is this clear? 

Watts defines “Speculation as a fine art, requiring a High Order 
of Talent.” Price adds—“Speculation presupposes intellectual effort; 
Gambling, Blind Chance; but they often run into one another.” It is 
often difficult to determine where one begins and where the other leaves 
off. That is what our Government is up against. 

“Speculation, is a Venture-Based upon Calculation; Gambling, 
a Venture Without Calculation. The Law Makes This Distinction: 
It Sustains Speculation and Condemns Gambling. 

We deduce from the above, that the Successful Manipulator is 
Lauded; and the Unsuccessful Loser, not possessing inside information 
of the Manipulator, is Condemned. Therefore, in this so-called “Busi- 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


41 


ness”, where 98% lose, causing so much disintegration and sorrow, it 
would not be stretching a point, to call it Damnable. 

Dr. J. Leonard Corning of New York City, argues relative to the 
state of suspense inherent in gamblers. He calls it ‘‘curve of suspense.” 
‘‘Psychologists point out that the fascination any games of hazard may 
have for you, varies in proportion to the depth of your curve of sus¬ 
pense” . . ‘‘gamesters are prone to have Quixotic feelings of 

great gain and incident power, which, in turn, tend further to increase 
the height of the curve of suspense.” . . . “Over and above the 

predisposing role played by such a temperament in heightening the excite¬ 
ment of gaming, I am convinced that to it is largely charged those 
more extreme manifestations of the gaming impulse that so frequently 
result in the permanent undoing of the subject and the humiliation and 
misery of his dependents.” . . . “That the inveterate gamester 

carries his excitement away from the table (or board) has it with him, 
in fact, most of the time, is therefore, hardly the riddle that it is popu¬ 
larly held to be. Still the very admission that despite his losses, he 
returns again and again, carries with it the suggestion of an addiction, a 
compelling force, a deranged mechanism; so that, recalling the physiol¬ 
ogy of the emotions, one is inevitably moved by a desire to win, to a 
conception, however provisional, of a morbid physiology implied by the 
habit of the gamester.” . . . “The emotions in gaming are aroused 

or rather racked in an unique and extreme fashion.” 

“It is easy to understand why those who are chronic victims of the 
gambling habit are so little fitted for the routine that enters so largely 
into the activities of common life.” 

This is what C. W. Smith says of “Futures”: “They constitute 
a form of gambling at the expense of a third and helpless party, and 
thus indirectly stab millions of innocent people behind their backs. 
They are affecting the prosperity as well as the honour of Governments. 
They allow, by the abuse of capital, a form of tyranny by the strong 
over the weak. Is it any wonder, under these circumstances, that we 
have millions of inhabitants, poor, starving, and homeless? It is a 
disease which is galloping and spreading wholesale destruction. Signs 
of uprisings are showing themselves all over the world.” 

“Unionism, socialism, hooliganism, anarchism, communism, revo¬ 
lutionism, and other “isms” are apparent on every side and all ranged 
against capitalism—not to honest capital, but to the numerous under¬ 
hand methods employed by dishonest capital, in all the great financial 
centers of the world.” 

“I have witnessed the gradual immoral national effects, upon 
America, France and Great Britain; and it is these three Christian 
countries wh ich stand out most prominently in 1905 as, what I may 
term, the ‘Gambling Nations.’ To my mind it clearly demonstrates 
that the abolition of ‘Options’ would strengthen and promote a more 
lasting peace amongst nations than any steps monarchs can invent; 




42 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


whether they be styled alliances, treaties, ententes cordiales, or by any 
other name.” 

He writes of ‘‘American and Canadian Wheat Corners”, as 
disturbing the world’s bread. ‘‘Such a state of affairs was solely 
due to the gambling operations by ‘bulls and bears’ as carried on, on 
the produce exchanges in the United States in foodstuffs. Operations, 
I may point out, which would never be tolerated even in Wall Street. 
Of the rise during the Leiter Corner of 1897-8: ‘‘The results on the 
world were starvation, bread riots, and massacres in some continental 
countries.” Of the bursting of the corner: ‘‘On the collapse of Leiter, 
owing to powerful ‘bear’ syndicates in the United States, a commercial 
and financial panic took place, involving the ruin and failure of hun¬ 
dreds of commercial houses in various parts of the world.” ‘‘1 he one 
of 1895, caused financial and commercial panics all over the world.” 
‘‘Both Capital and Labour suffer and antagonisms are accentuated 
between Capital and Labor by ‘Bull and Bear’ operations.” 

He says: ‘‘The Boer War in South Africa, was caused, largely 
by ‘Bear Operations.’ Dishonest Capital is the prime cause of millions 
of our starving people of the world. Even Madras and other outlying 
points. Manipulation causing ‘unnatural prices’, often paralyze and 
ruin legitimate trade.” 

He adds that ‘‘During the past twelve months, some twenty 
suicides have taken place in Paris, London and New York, etc., due 
to ‘gambling’ losses in finance and trade. The ‘liquidation’ of these 
various men’s gambling operations caused a state of panic-like demor¬ 
alization throughout the ‘World’s Exchanges.’” 

We, a Christian Nation, allow these ‘‘Bull and Bear” Opera¬ 
tions to go on untrammeled, while we very well know that poverty 
induces, aids and abets sin, disease and death. 

Ex-President Roosevelt says: ‘‘The man of great means who 
achieves an immense fortune by crooked methods, does a wrong to the 
body politic, and becomes a source of great danger to the nation.” 

When the ‘‘Highly Moral (?) Road House” called ‘‘Sunny- 
side”, was opened, who were the best supporters? The ‘‘Boys” of 
the Chicago Board of Trade. It was ‘‘simply useless trying to do 
business until this affair was well off their hands”, so they said. You 
see, they are ‘‘Dead Game Sports”, and what can you expect from 
such ‘‘Roistering Blades”, and the deceitful business they are in, 
swindling our men and boys wherever possible. They don’t deny it; 
they glory in their power and craftiness. These are the bright sparks 
who are fooling with our food products and “disturbing the world’s 
bread”, under Dragon’s leadership. 

Race pool buying” in Jack Haverly’s time, was considered “pre- 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


43 


cisely as one might buy real estate or imaginary wheat or pork in their 
respective “rings” or “pits” on the Board of Trade. 

In ancient times, say from 1200 to 1850, in Lubeck, Frankfort, 
Bremen, Hamburg and other cities, speculation was indulged, mostly 
by Jews. This form was called “Forestalling” farmer’s crops; gambling 
in public funds and stocks, called “Time Bargains.” Various laws were 
made and later repealed. There were no “Bears” in those days, and 
the users and consumers received it “in the neck.” Now the producer 
also receives the “solar plexus”; so at the present time we are saddled 
with a double curse. 

Of the London Stock and Liverpool Grain Exchanges, the Paris 
Bourse, Berlin Exchange, and the New York Stock, Cotton and Grain 
Exchanges, I refer in a measure. 

There was the Mississippi Bubble of 200 years ago, 1717. 
Dealing in futures were introduced to meet the popular demand. The 
Company also included the Canada Beaver and Tobacco Farming 
and the privileges of Senegal and Africa. A piece of doggeral was 
passed around at that time, as follows: 

“My shares which on Monday I bought 
Were worth millions, I thought. 

So on Wednesday I chose my abode; 

In my carriage on Thursday I rode, 

To the ballroom on Friday I went. 

To the workhouse next day I was sent.” 

This was rather unusual speed, but shows us the spirit of the 
times. Law, the originator, was bundled out of France and later 
England and died in obscurity in Venice. 

To “save our face”, we better pass over, or gently touch upon 
the bonds and mortgages repudiated by some of the various states of 
this country, up to 1843. Rev. Henry Smith, asked the House of 
Representatives to restore money to foreign countries, sunk in “Larcenous 
Lake”, “Swindling Swamp”, “Crafty Canal”, “Rogues’ Railway” 
and other dishonest works. 

Speculation in America would give us a wide subject. We might 
refer to the enlightening work of writers of note; as, one veil after another 
was torn from our eyes, by Lincoln Steffens, Alfred Henry Lewis, 
Roy Stannard Baker, C. P. Connolly, Burton J. Hendricks, Ida 
Tarbell, of Standard Oil fame; Frank J. Kannon, Donald Hamilton 
Haynes, Brand Whitlock, Arthur Brisbane, Charles Edward Russell, 
Arthur McEwing, James Creelman, F. C. Howe, Henry D. Lloyd, 
Merrill A. Teague, Thomas Lawson, the prolific lambaster (scoffed 



44 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECU LATION 


at by many, yet a purveyor of the truth) ; Prof. Emery, the economic; 

Marcossen, and others. , . 

The writers above named, with others, have taken up the past 
and present barbarous methods of handling man and beast, under the 

heads of such subjects as: ^ 

Graft in England; Barney Bernato; Free Picmcmg; Owners ot 
America; Secretan Coffee Corner; Atrocities of the Slaughter Houses, 
where a million of four-footed beasts are annually killed to satisfy our 
cannibalistic cravings; Great Express Monopoly; Juggling With the 
Tariff; Where Every Penny Counts; Barring Out the Stock Thieves in 
Kansas; The Passing of the Plunger; Crusade Against Loan Sharks; 
Better Business; The Fight for the Forests; The Oregon Land Frauds; 
Wealth Against Commonwealth; Abraham Reuf and San Francisco; 
California Bonanza Frenzy; William Burns’ Activities; Billy Sunday’s 
Beating the Devil, and with Success; Heney and His Fights; Market 
Wrecking; Bucket Shop Sharps; Market Gambling and Gambling in 
General. 

One by one, the various evils and grafts of enormous magnitudes, 
have been swept aside; but not without energetic action upon the part 
of reformers, philosophers and philanthropists. Many that have been 
corrected, are given in this chapter, and yet there are many more 
uncovered and uncorrected. Each one eliminated will make for a 
better nation, more peaceful, more humane, charitable and truth loving. 

We might say that Carnegie was the King of Steel; Morgan, 
King of Finance; Harriman and Hill, Kings of Railways. Harriman, 
a juggler of dollars and railways; at one time czar of the street, feared 
by nearly all. Rockefeller, King of Petroleum; Smith, King of Beet 
Sugar and Mormondom; Armour, King of Grain and Provisions. 
Russell Sage, called the Beach Comber of Finance; Richard Crocker, 
the “Boss of Tammany’’; “Deacon’’ S. V. White, once master of 
Lackawanna; William Whitney, the Metropolitan Traction; Thomas 
Ryan, the Stock Waterer and Master Manipulator, whose \vord was 
law with five large banks, besides many Companies; a veritable “Genius 
for Concentration. ’ 

Gates, the Skyrocket of the Exchange, believed “All Life Was 
Gambling.’’ Of his advent, Morgan said, he was “like a bull going 
into a china shop.” Addison Cammack, the wrecker, was the great 
Wall Street bear operator. 

Keene, the “Warwick of Stocks”, said of speculation, “Without 
speculation—call it gambling if you will—initiative will cease, business 
decay, values decline, and the country go back twenty years in a 
twelvemonth.” Keene advised people, however, to keep away from 
speculation. With all his resources, he wen onlv four times out of 
seven deals. Jim had a kind heart for certain forms of suffering. The 
“scroll above” will show. Rogers, the Richelieu and “Piston Rod” 
of Standard Oil, of whom much could be said, (read “Frenzied 
Finance ) and William Rockefeller, the “Fly Wheel.” 






DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


45 


We might dilate upon the “Barons of Finance ”, and add to the 
above, the Astors, masters of unearned increment; Vanderbilts, boat 
and road builders; Jay Cooke, active in war times; Drexel; Mackay, 
the Founder of the Bonanza Fortunes and Promoter of the Mackay- 
Bennett Cable; Havermeyers, Hawley, Flower, Biddle, Mills, (Phil¬ 
anthropist) Flagler, Promoter of the Railway to Florida Keys; Higgin- 
son, Wanamaker, Jordan, A. T. Stewart, F. M. Woolworth, Kidder, 
Gugginheims; Frick, the Master of Coke; Clark, the Montana Mining 
Emperor; Armours, Morris, Swifts, Cudahays, and Hammond, Meat 
Packers; Leiter, Patten and scores of others. 

The Great Promoters, Eads (Mississippi Jetties) Whitney (Cot¬ 
ton Gin) Howe, (Sewing Machine) Bell, (Telephone) DeLesseps, 
Edison, Marconi, Field, Westinghouse, Aggasiz, Schwab, Spreckels. 
The Street Car Kings, Vreeland, Root Jr., Yerkes, Elkins, Widener; 
and Reid and Moore of varied interests from match to can, and so on. 

We might recall the pillaging of the Railways by Daniel Drew, 
the nemesis of Erie, one of the first of Wall Street Plungers; Jay 
Gould, the Wizard of Wall Street, inventor of a rat trap and inci¬ 
dentally the railway smasher; Jim Fiske, called “Prince Erie’’, the 
Evil Genius of the Erie Railway, a road (as Marcossen says) which was 
the “seething battleground of sordid and destructive ambition.’’ “They 
corrupted courts, pillaged the public, and made the loot of corporate 
properties a fine art.” In the early times of the New York Stock 
Exchange, the listing of securities was often a farce. Addicks, the 
Tartar of politicians and corporations, last heard from, was in Ludlow 
Street Jail at the age of 74. 

Jake Sharp, who came down the Canal to New York City on a 
load of logs; bribed the boodling Board of Aldermen, and said Aider- 
men skipped to Canada in one night. Jake died in Ludlow Street Jail. 
Several others died there. Boss Tweed, who started his boodling 
course in a Bowery stable, was caught off the coast of Spain and brought 
back on an U. S. Cruiser, died there. Addicks, whose word was as 
good as his bond, which was nit, died there. 

Then there were the Cotton Price Disturbers; Dan Sully, Brown, 
Haynes, Hentz, Scales, Patten, Price and Inman and many more 
buccaneers. What a farce of fining Five Cotton Kings $4,000 each, 
when millions had been taken from the people. I will delete the names 
of the offenders and also what was said by several of the losers. The 
California Mining, Railway and Banking Kings; Sharon, Crockers, 
Mackay, Flood, O’Brien, Jim Kenne,—the last of the great plungers 
—Baldwin, Ralstron, Stanford, Haggin, Hearst, Krutschnitt, Elliott, 
Fair, Hopkins and the Huntingtons. What an array of mortal talent. 
We have some 20,000 of these millionaires in this burgh of America. 

We might review the “Louisiana” and “Missouri” Lotteries; 
“Tammany Gang,” “Ship Trust”, “Under the Prophet in Utah”, 
“Beet Sugar Round-Up”, “Beef”, “Chicago Combine”, “St. Louis 
Syndicate”, “Oil and Tobacco Trusts”, “The Game Got Them”, 



46 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


“Rebate Conspiracy’’, “The Viper on the Hearth , Office Buyers 
“The Romance of the Reaper’’, “The Beast and the^ Jungle’’, “It”, 
“The Passing of the War Lord ”, The System and ^ The Remedy , 
“The Pujo Committee’’, “Brigham Copper Swindle”, “Sealshipt Oyster 
System”, “The Failure of Brown & Co., of the Shoe String Capital, 
with Buck Buchanan’s Dollar-Piano”, “The Collapse of Steve Dow ^ 
of Boston Exchange; “Bay State Gas”, “Corruption of Massachusetts’ 
Legislature”, “Socialism, a Promise or Menace”, the late “Election 
Frauds in Terre Haute”, and final roading of the Mayor, Chief of 
Police and thirteen other citizens to Leavenworth Penitentiary”; “Sol¬ 
diers of the Common Good.” Violators of the Oleomargarine Law 
have defrauded the Government out of at least $27,000,000 since 
1902. 

Man slavery was abolished among us, after thousands of lives 
were snuffed out. Horse Racing as a gambling institution, was also 
abolished after a struggle. The Liquor Question, especially the debas¬ 
ing Saloon, is gradually being given a quietus. The Trusts are sub¬ 
dued a little. The White Slaver is being hounded from our midst. 
The Black Hand, Counterfeiter, Moonshiner, Itinerant Gambler, Food 
Adulterer, Gold Brick Man, High Interest Oppressor, High Rate 
Loan Companies, Confidence Man, Church Raffler and Grab Bagger, 
Real Estate Liar, Horse Thief and Trader, are gradually being re¬ 
pressed, and we hope they will soon be relegated to oblivion, in our 
onward march of elevating progress. 

Now while we have been pounding upon the above named, we 
allow some of the most polished robbers of modern times, we might 
say, some of the smoothest criminals and swindlers of speculative history, 
to go scott free, with now and then a little fine of $100,000 or so, 
which is a mere bagatelle to the millions fleeced from the people. 

Like the Heads of the Standard Oil, as a prominent writer says, 
they are sure thing” operators. They never enter a deal on even 
terms. Their cards are always stacked, their dice cogged and their 
boxes fixed; and all the time they are trying to prove that their victims 
have a square deal. 

This cursory review does not look very inviting, does it? 

For the larger portion of this work, I will only deal with two 
branches of Speculative Gambling, those of Grain and Provisions. To 
sum these tersely. The Evil Effects of Gambling with the PRICES 
OF FOOD PRODUCTS. Please note my distinction, Gambling with 
the PRICES. 





MORE GAMBLING HOUSES 



NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE 
Nearly as Bad 


N. Y. PRODUCE EXCHANGE 
Same Old Game 







N. Y. CONSOLIDATED EXCHANGE 
A Thorn in the Flesh 


N. 1’. COTTON EXCHANGE 
Quite Rabid at Times 









































. 





































































As the partridge sittith on eggs, and hatcheih them not; so he that 
getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, 
and at his end shall be a fool.” —Jer. 17: 11. 


CHAPTER TWO 


One Man Power 

Kaufman says: ‘Professional gamblers of all kinds, exist 

through people who take chances. Wall Street occasionally allows 
a lamb to fatten on its slopes. If a limited few weren’t permitted to 
eat a little grass, there would be no bellwethers to run bleating off 
to the pastures where the muttonheads flock, and lead new victims to 
the slaughter. The only stock market luck is bad luck and that’s 
simply an alias for bad judgment.” 

The eminent jurist, Thomas Burke, said these significant words 
to me: ‘‘You may be able to cure a drunkard, a glutton, a thief, and 
many other wayward persons; but to regenerate a confirmed gambler is 
almost a hopeless undertaking.” 

Young men, mark well this statement. 

A careful reading of Lecky’s ‘‘Map of Life” will strengthen one 
to deal with human wiles. 

Judge Burke also says that ‘‘the element of chance enters so inti¬ 
mately into every department of life, that it is difficult to determine where 
speculation ends and where gambling begins.” 

Our daily and hourly appeal should be, that Divine Love place 
us where we properly belong; where we can do the most good, while 
aiding progress and uplift. 

Although, at times, I may indulge in commonplace, sarcasm and 
ribaldry, I approach this subject with a serious desire to accomplish good 
for my fellow man. 

I am watching a friend of mine, upon whom Dragon is playing 
the same tricks, played for years upon others. I do wish I might be 
able to shut up this shop before he loses all he has, or I am invited to 
his funeral. 

This tenacious error, when once it rivets its tentacles upon one, is 
very difficult to work away from. 

I sometimes wonder how many of our years it will take for 
Dragon Senior and Junior to slough off these scales of stupendous error, 





50 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


in order to enter the Divine. I am not judging, I simply leave the 
thought with you. 

They say that a man who speculates in a small way arid loses, 
is a gambler. If he prospers materially, he is a speculator. If he 
succeeds in a large degree, he is a financier, and is looked up to as a 
wonder. He has made a great success of life, no matter who was 
humiliated, wrecked, and covered by debt debree. They also say that 
“Wind, or Paper Wheat makes no flour, and fills no stomachs.’’ This 
is the kind of wheat we will discuss. 

Some six or seven years ago, I prepared a paper entitled, “One 
Man Power,” “The Autocratic Rule of the Board of Trade and 
What It Means to the Common People.” It reads somewhat as fol¬ 
lows: “The American Farmer produces a nearly Ten Billion Dollar 
Crop (now over ten billion) ; and this enormous product of our fertility 
is, in a great measure, controlled by one person at Chicago; through his 
servants, a Board of Trade and a few Satellites.” 

Dragon Senior was satisfied with America for his financial king¬ 
dom. Junior requires the whole World for his. Senior had forty in 
his office; Junior requires 1,500 in his. Some seven years ago, $140,- 
000,000 were offered for his holdings. And think of it. Most of 
these millions were robbed from the people. This would be a small 
price for his holdings now. All of the grain elevators of a transconti¬ 
nental railway are in the hands of a questionable power; besides 400 
or 500 small city elevators. 

If it were not for this, or any other one man power, the market 
price never would so frequently be depressed so low; nor would we 
see such high prices. The operations of this single being, involving 
transactions into the tens of millions, are world wide in their influence 
and tremendous in their power. If this power was worked for the 

benefit of mankind, what a blessing it would be. But it is not; and in 

the following statements, carefully prepared from observations of thirty 
years, backed by cases cited, I shall prove that this is true. 

When a one man power can, by the use of various means at his 
command, depress prices ten (this means two billions) to thirty per 
cent, below normal, so that the producer can not secure a proper return 
for his labor, and thereby his family suffer; and from this point, this 
one man power can carry the market! price from twenty to forty per 
cent, above normal, so that millions who buy, paying from one to 

four billions more than the product is really worth, suffer in their 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


51 


endeavors to secure enough to live upon; is it possible at this time to 
call a halt and curtail this power that works harm to mankind? Now 
let us consider this matter impartially and impassionately. 

In the first place this country does not believe in the one man power. 
The will of the people, our constitution, the very principles upon which 
our government was founded, is against one man rule, one man power. 
Therefore my argument is answered at the outset. 

Human nature is weak, and one of the strongest weaknesses of 
our nature, is love of power, love of ruling, love of possession (which 
of course is power) to use how? In the higher order of our mental 
and moral nature—for the good of mankind; in our lower nature, for 
the ill of mankind. In the latter, by taking away the people’s means 
of sustenance, bringing millions to grinding poverty, producing parasites, 
beggars and degenerates.” 

Up to the present time the energies of the people, abetted by the 
Chicago Board of Trade, have been exerted against the Bucket Shops, 
called ‘‘Hell’s Kitchen”, or ‘‘Dick Canfields of marginal speculation”, 
and with success. 

The Bucket Shop was made possible by the introduction of 
Marginal Trading, and while the keepers were honest in using the 
trading prices of the so-called ‘‘legitimate houses , the deals were more 
quickly and easily carried through without so much red tape, and required 
less margin. While the ‘‘regular” broker was anxious for you to gain, 
the bucket shop keeper was anxious to steal every dollar you possessed. 

At the present time, I hold that the Boards of Trade are now 
run by one person, who is waiting and planning to grab every dollar 
put up for margins, that he can roll into his coffers, and I am not alone 
in holding this thought. While you really buy and sell nothing in a 
bucket shop, but simply bet, over 95% of the traders do the same 
thing on the Boards of Trade, where marginal trading is allowed. The 
traders never intend to present or take the commodity. Again, what is 
the difference, at the end of the game? You lose in either place, if 
you play for any length of time. 

I will also say of Dragon, as Teague said of the bucket shop 
keeper, ‘‘He has no purpose other than to steal all the money you 
have or can beg, borrow or steal” (remember Harper and the Fidelity 
Bank) ‘‘and when he has done this, to steal the home that houses your 
family, to steal the dress your wife will wear next year, and to steal 
the food your baby will require as it grows.” ‘‘Yet, because he simu- 



52 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


lates respectability, he is permitted to perpetrate his swindles with im¬ 
punity.” (See Everybody’s of June, 1916.) The broker you deal 
with may be a disinterested party, but Dragon who gets your money, 
is most deeply interested. Of that you may be sure. I class this 
fellow with “Al” Adams of New York, whom a Judge dubbed “the 
meanest man in New York. This swindler has use of the mails, tele¬ 
graph and telephone to carry on his debasing work. Teague said that 
bucket shops stole $100,000,000 yearly. What must the Chicago 
and other Boards of Trade take from the people? 

John Hill Jr., backed by the Chicago Board of Trade, relentlessly 
pursued several bucket shop keepers; and W r m. V. King, of the New 
York Cotton Exchange, aided to some extent. Why? Simply because 
these bucket shops were taking “business” away from them, the so-called 
“legitimate.” Don’t think for a moment, that any humanitarian instinct 
would stimulate such action. Let our Government pursue these “legiti¬ 
mates” just as relentlessly, until they quit marginal trading. Bar the 
mails, telegraph and telephone until they do quit. 

Take the case of Barrett Brothers. Their case is a specimen 
as to how reliable some of the great ones are, who bucket their deals: 

“Missing Brokers Leave $200,000 in Claims 

“CHICAGO, Saturday, Oct. 1 4.—Barrett Brothers, brokers with 
officers in New York, Chicago and Denver, whose affairs are under 
investigation by federal officials and for whom search is being made, 
left unsecured claims estimated at $200,000, according to officers en¬ 
gaged in an inquiry into the affairs of the brothers—Wallace and John 
F. Barrett, respectively manager of the Denver and Chicago offices. To 
meet the claims, federal officials said, there is about $5,000 deposited 
in local banking houses.” 

The Bucket Shops are rooted out of many States. They have 
kindred establishments in several Eastern States. In Oregon, they get 
around the law by sending their orders to Colorado. Practically their 
day is over. 

A Bucket Shop can not stand a rising market. The people who 
patronize these affairs rarely play anything but the long side of the 
market. Their chances of profit might be considered about as follows: 
If prices go down, they lose. If prices go up, the house “Busts.” 

Patton Thomas says of Bucket Shops: “A Pure (say Impure) 
Gambling Game, Because Its Only Profits Are The Losses Of Its 
Clients. Masquerading as a legitimate business, it induces men, women 






DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


53 


and youths to gamble, in order to win their earnings.” I hold that that 
is what this Juggernaut is to-day; being run by one person. 

It is evident that conditions from now on will see forces centered 
not only upon the bucket shop, but also the higher-up, the board of 
trade, which gambles in prices of commodities, thwarting the interest 
and will of the people who lose at both extremes of the forced rise 
and fall of prices. We remember what the Anti-Gambling League 
of Chicago tried to do with Patten. Patten was great as a surface 
man, but certainly not the power to create the great sweeps of values. 

I hold that the high cost of commodities held some six or seven 
years ago, were largely caused by manipulations upon the Board of 
Trade by one man and that other man, Patten. I further hold that a 
certain Board of Trade, as now run by one man power, is little more 
than a mammoth bucket shop. Why not? He makes the prices for 
the world. The largest share of the profits or swag or rake-offs, going 
into the pockets of one man. 

Emery says, ‘‘One man power in a market is extremely dangerous; 
for to whatever use it is put, it makes all conditions uncertain, and the 
trade nervous and uncertain.” 

A mere operator has less chance of success, upon this Board 
of Trade, than a sordid bettor upon a race horse. The manipulation 
may not be quite as raw (for certainly we have as smooth a set of 
manipulators at Chicago as can be found anywhere) BUT THE END 
IS THE SAME, and at the close of the deal, THEY WILL HAVE 
YOUR MONEY, AND ONE MANIPULATOR WILL HAVE 
THE MOST OF IT. 

As Bear writes (which I have held for years) : ‘‘It is not even 
straightforward gambling. It is one in which trickery of the most 
unscrupulous kind is exalted into a science. Futures are not so fair a 
game as cards.” 

An American produce broker of long study adds: Some of 

their methods are as infamous and thievish as those of the lowest black¬ 
leg gamblers—no better than those gamblers who use marked cards 
on the greenhorn, and carry plenty of aces up their sleeves.” (See 
Contemporary Review of 1894, pages 786-7.) 

Now here is a combination that at present can not be beaten. 
It is similar to a cancer which is well imbedded; and the only way to 
kill it, is to cut it out, or annihilate the corpus. Supposing this man 
should be allowed to go on indefinitely, what would be the result? 



54 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Would we not become as desperate as the old Roman slaves? If this 
is bad or a wrong to our people, and I hold that it is, what is the 
remedy ? 

“It is as a clearing house of opinion, that the Chicago Board 
of Trade becomes a national institution. The $400,000,000 of grain 
and provisions annually handled, are merely incidental.” Again note 
the power granted to wind markets. 




OLD-TIME SPECULATIVE GAMBLING 



NEW ORLEANS COTTON 
EXCHANGE 

How You Have Ginned the 
Cotton Planter 


AT NIGHT DOWN AT GALLAGHER’S IN 1846 
Disreputable and Disintegrating 



N. Y. STOCK EXCHANGE IN 1857 
Respectable But Dangerous 


SHORTS COVERING 
WIND, STOCK IN 1881 

The Devil Take the Hind¬ 
most 






















































And the beast ivhich / san> n>a,s /i£e unto a leopard, and his feel 
ivere as the feet of a beast, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and 
the Dragon gave him his poiver, and his seat, and great authority.'' —Rev. 


CHAPTER THREE 

The Juggernaut 

The Persons, Power, Senior and Junior Manipulator, Dragon, 
or whatever I may call him or them, whom I will discuss, have been 
and are looked up to as financiers; but who are gamblers and robbers 
of the rankest type, having every high card marked; and who deserve 
no emulation from us, in this special branch; and before I am through 
with you I feel sure that you will give a decided vote that speculating 
in the prices of our food products, should be relegated to the ash heap 
of burning wrongs, as should the saloon and white slave traffics. 

If, in the following pages, I shall be able to impress upon you how 
fatal to your well being, it is to enter speculative gambling; and if my 
book will prevent your conscience from becoming seared; and your 
families in a measure protected from suffering, hardship and misery; 
I shall feel amply repaid, in a spiritual way, for my labors. 

For the larger portion of my work, I shall call this one man 
power, Dragon, because he clutches and strangles home builders. He 
raises the price of their bread; he takes away their means of support. 
He is a robber and a ravager. The institution over which he presides, 
I name Juggernaut, because it crushes our people morally, mentally and 
financially, to powder. 

Bryan says, that “Some men are too busy to collect, because 
they are too busy earning. Others are too busy to earn because they 
are too busy collecting.” This Dragon is very busy collecting. 

I was informed, a short time ago, by a former broker, that the 
Standard Oil was back of many of the deals made at Chicago. That 
the Standard Oil employed Leiter to act for them, until they found 
that he was speculating; then they took the power away and went 
against him, and he was ruined. This is not my version, however. 



58 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 

The Gambling Section of the Boards of Trade have taken 

hundreds of millions out of the pockets of the people; and while 

returning to some few a fortune, to others, barely a pittance, in return 

for their money; and thousands have been robbed right and left, and 

pushed off the board. Dr. David Starr Jordan says: “Every great 
wrong has money behind it. 

Newton Dent writes: “Every city [of note] has a grain ex¬ 
change; but where is there a “wheat pit” as terrible in its power to 
unsettle the world’s bread as that which stands at the head of La Salle 
Street” ? 

I have no personal retaliative feeling against the men at work upon 
the Board of Trade, except to warn and protect others from moral, 
mental and financial disaster. 

They are not wholly to blame for the System; they have grown 
up in it. It has become a part of their life. It is a jovial crowd, and 
the members brilliant and interesting; but so heartless for the wrongs 
committed through their efforts. 

I desire to prove that they are in the wrong business; that of 
aiding and abetting in the emptying of the pockets of those who cannot 
keep away from this power’s influence. I hold that the curtailment of 
this business is especially vital to the economics of home life. 

A dollar a bushel for wheat and three dollars per barrel for flour, 
is the dream of the economic alchemist. The very opposite is what this 
master manipulator is carrying out. He is trying to extract the wheat 
from the growers at the lowest possible price; then to sell it to the bread 
makers, at the highest possible price. The Anti-Option Bills have 
been entered to try and stop this business. The Butterworth, Hatch and 
Washburn bills were before Congress, especially against short selling; 
but how impotent. These bills were opposed by bankers, merchants 
and manufacturers. But note this—the bills received strong popular 
support. 

I am not alone in saying that this section of the Board of Trade, 
as influenced by one-man power, is an enormous Bucket Shop. Why 
not a Bucket Shop? The boodle, for the larger part, goes into the 
hands of one man. However, unlike the proverbial bucket shop keeper, 
he does not fail every year or two, and skip the country. 

The United States Court of Appeals, several times stated that 
“Stock Gambling is not more pernicious when done on the floor of a 





DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


59 


bucket shop, than when done on the floor of the Chicago Board of 
Trade. (See Dodlinger, “The Book of Wheat”, page 249.) 

I have it upon good authority that 95 or more per cent, of the 
business on the Chicago Board of Trade is rank speculation, or gambling 
in the food prices; neither side expecting to furnish nor receive a bushel 
of wheat, corn or oats, nor a barrel of pork or a tierce of lard. 

Here is a devastator of our homes, that quickly follows in 
destructiveness, the White Slave, Saloon and Dope traffics; and is 
far more insidious, for it is considered “Respectable Business.” It 
strikes the homes of the well-to-do, and' in a day, they are brought to 
poverty. Yes, in an hour, half an hour; yes, in thirty seconds. Lawson 
says that 90% of the transactions upon the New York Stock Exchange 
are gambling. Untermeyer gives a higher figure. He certainly ought 
to know. 

In the Amalgamated Copper Robberies of some years ago, 
engineered by the two Rockefellers, Rogers, Stillman, with Lawson 
for the Goat, $100,000,000 were lost; thirty committed suicide, and 
twenty respectable citizens were made convicts. 

Would we not hate to have to answer for such financial atrocities? 
Think how far that is from the Golden Rule. Did they “Love their 
brothers as themselves”? 

HISTORY 

Now for a little history: The mental machinery for speculation 
in produce, was developed from the practice of English and Dutch 
Importers, by the issue of warrants, which passed from hand to hand as 
negotiable paper. The last buyer could present the warrant for the 
commodity. You see how that which was created to meet necessity 
has been prostituted to base gambling. 

Take the history of the Chicago Board of Trade. It had its 
beginning in 1 848, and the members used to meet in one of the canal 
boats. 

Daily sessions were held in 1856. 

According to Mr. Delany, “The Chicago Board of Trade was 
organized in 1848 with 79 members. Reorganized in 1850, again 
in 1859, when it was incorporated. Quarters were rented until the 
First Exchange Building was erected in 1865 at LaSalle and Wash¬ 
ington Streets. This was destroyed in 1871 in the Great Fire. Rebuilt 
in 1885.” Not satisfied with the present building the Corporation is 



60 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULA TION 


now planning for a greater structure. The Membership is now about 
1,600.” 

One late issue of a New York financial paper of authority gives 
the price of Chicago Board of Trade Membership at $7,550. If this is 
correct, it is far worse than I have quoted; for with this small capital , a 
member is empowered to deal in millions. This is food for serious 
thought. 

This same issue gives Cotton Board Membership at $1 7,000 and 
New York Stock Exchange Memberships at $65,000 to $75,000. 
Late highest, $78,000. Who ‘‘pays the piper” and the ‘‘dancing 
dervish” ? 

Benj. P. Hutchinson, one of my Yankee Cousins , came into 
the game in 1857 and 1858, and worked many squeezes. He intro¬ 
duced “Scalping” and “Milked the Market” upon as many occasions 
as he could. He had one successful corner in the sixties and another 
in 1 888. 

Lyon tried to run many corners. The last one in 1872, and the 
first one of importance, when he ran wheat from 90c to $2, in August. 
However, this one broke him. Bogus warrants and enormous wheat 
receipts, caused general selling and Lyon was ruined. Of Lyon’s 
associates, Chisholm committed suicide; Diamond disappeared; Uren 
and Scott ended their days in obscure boarding houses. 

Philip D. Armour was brought to Chicago from Milwaukee by 
a Corn Deal. He lost a large sum of money. Corn sold at 30c, 
25c, and even to 19c a bushel. Armour lost several sums before he 
assumed great power. One person made him hustle to secure wheat 
to cover his December shorts, in 1897. 

In the early stages there was no definite system of working deals; 
but after a certain brain, whom I will call Manipulator or Dragon 
Senior, entered the arena, there was a decided system; and has, to a 
greater or less degree, been successfully followed for over forty years. 
I have watched the maneuvers for thirty years. The same tricks, 
with a few changes, seem to befuddle the brains of our traders, and they 
were, and are, being led like sheep to the slaughter. 

The study of the devious ways that an option is carried out to 
perfection, is very interesting to one who understands the game; and 
incidentally to the sure destruction of the plumpness of the pocket- 
books of those who take a hand. I have many times begun upon the 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


61 


study of some option, ten or eleven months before its consummation. 
All sorts of tricks were carried on, to rustle the tailers, or holders, off 
their perch, and their margins into the capracious maw of this financial 
Dragon. 

They witness these anomalous changes, and wonder why the 
markets, irom day to day and year to year, should twist in such con¬ 
trary fashion, opposite to the natural sequence of a natural cause. It is 
no secret to me. These changes are arranged from day to day, week 
to week, month to month, year to year or a series of years, in an 
office in the heart of Chicago; and carried out by Dragon’s henchmen 
upon the Board from day to day, and the poor dear public are helping 
him all the time, by falling for these deceiving manipulations. 

As many have wondered how the various cities of the United 
States could be connected with New York and Chicago; a broker 
of many years’ experience has kindly handed in the following, showing 
how price quotations are carried to the outside world; and from that 
standpoint, is very instructive and interesting. 

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the working 
and handling of the quotations and orders to these exchanges, we submit 
this article. 

A BROKER’S EXPLANATION 

“Generally speaking of the Stock Exchange, one refers to the 
great exchange of Wall Street, New York; and of the Board of Trade, 
as the grain exchange of Chicago; although there are several exchanges 
throughout the country in the principal cities, they are relatively min¬ 
nows in comparison to those great exchanges.’’ 

“First, we might mention the difference between the ‘Bucket Shops’ 
and the ‘Commission House.’ The former dealt from the quotations 
made by purchasers and sales worked on the Exchanges (not always 
correct quotations, however), with no intention of making a bona fide 
purchase or sale, but with merely the idea that the customer (if such a 
term is proper) is betting from the figures on a blackboard of the rise 
and fall of the market. 

“Now the Commission Broker is generally a member of some 
exchange and sends his order to the broker by wire for execution on 
the respective exchange, if being in grain, to Chicago; and if in stocks, 
to New York. In both cases—either bucket shop or commission house 
—private wires are rented from the different telegraph companies for 
connection with outside brokerage houses. 

“These have been great revenue sources for these companies for 
years, as the mileage charge is generally exorbitant. Each outside com¬ 
mission broker must have his connection or broker, in New York or 



62 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Chicago, execute their orders, as well as to send them the ‘gossip’ of 
the street, or what is expected to be done with this or that stock or grain 
option. These wire connections have been the source of bringing more 
money to New York and Chicago, than any other known means. They 
connect not only cities in close proximity with the exchanges, but stretch 
out over the whole United States, from Maine to California. The 
service is always fast, and as the wires are leased for no other purpose 
but the brokerage business, it can easily be seen how rapidly this class of 
matter could be handled. A wire running from San Francisco to New 
York, means not only one relay connection being made, that at Chicago * 
and on to New York. It is possible to handle a message or order to a 
broker on the exchange in two or three minutes. It has been stated that 
Chicago is closer to Wall Street Exchange than “up-town”, meaning 
that it takes less time to hand business from Chicago to the floor of the 
exchange, than it would to telephone from an up-town office right in 
the City of New York. 

The quotations of the New York Stock Exchange are sent out 
over what is termed the “ticker wire”, which connects nearly all the 
large cities. No other business is handled on these wires and they are 
meant simply to handle the quotations as they are made on the floor 
of the exchange. One of these wires works North from New York 
City by way of Albany, Buffalo on to Chicago; while another works 
by the way of Washington, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to Chicago. 
Both routes are connected as one and form a grand loop over the 
country, and is so arranged that if one circuit should become faulty, 
the other would carry the quotations without delay. 

Hardly ever would both routes be interrupted at one time, although 
such a condition has occurred. At Chicago, other Western cities are 
connected up to the same wires, by means of automatic repeaters, 
which means the supplying to the whole country over a great web of 
wire connections, a complete list of transactions of the exchange simul¬ 
taneously. The revenues derived from this source, is from the rentals 
of tickers at various points to stock exchange houses, saloons, hotels, 
etc. ; and is entirely separate from the leased wires which are made to 
individual brokers throughout the country. 

It has been stated on good authority, that neither Wall Street, 
meaning, of course, the Stock Exchange, nor the Chicago Board of 
Irade, could exist without the aid of the outside public; and this is 
only made possible by the connection by wire to those exchanges. 

The outside public is always a large factor when the markets 
are active; as there are very few cities throughout the country that 
are not blessed” with a brokerage house or several of them.” 

While bucket shops are places where they are carrying on the 
same kind of gambling, the Chicago Board of Trade says, and tries 
to prove and convince the people, that this business when carried on 





DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 63 


in these bucket shops, is immoral; but the moment you enter their 
magnificent hall, it becomes moral. 

But reader, in either place, you lose your money; whether, ac¬ 
cording to the Chicago Board of Trade it is morally or immorally 
accomplished. I am not defending the Bucket Shops. I am showing 
that they use same gambling machinery. 

The Bucket Shops, where they are faithful in copying, use the 
same dope, scattered broadcast by Dragon, through wire and press; 
and this has the same effect upon the immoral lambs, as upon the 
moral lambs and goats. 

And the members of the Chicago Board of Trade are trying 
to crush out the immoral Bucket Shops. Why? Because the Bucket 
Shops are taking business away from them. 

Why don’t they crush out the Open Board of Trade, right under 
the eaves of their gambling hall? Because that is bringing them trade. 
That is different. 

In other words, if you bring them business, you are moral. If 
you take business away, you are immoral. 

The Price Current-Grain Reporter, an estimable paper, pub¬ 
lished in Chicago, in its issue of September 29, 1915, relative to the 
Chicago Board of Trade, reads as follows: “What is it? Why 
has it an existence? What are its functions? How can it justify 
itself” ? 

My Dear Mr. Editor: In its marginal-option gambling it can 
not justify itself; as millions of robbed homes can testify. Then, my 
dear sir, you go on and endeavor to show how ignorant the people 
are in regard “to this great market place.” Now when you say that 
“the Chicago Board of Trade is nothing but an open market for 
the purchase and sale of grain and provisions”, you deliberately falsify 
and you know it. Perhaps you personally do not know that from 
98 to 99% of the so-called “bsuiness” carried on there, is “trading in 
wind”, and that only from one to two per cent, is dealing in the real 
commodity. Perhaps you do not know that eighty-five per cent of the 
margins carted to this enormous American Monte Carlo and Bucket 
Shop, is lost by these “ignorant ones” you write of; and that 98% 
of these duped traders lose their money, and have been losing ever 
since “Old Hutch” started the scalping racket some sixty or seventy 
years ago. I agree with you that the “dear public” need, very 





64 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


muchly, to be informed, and that is the purpose of this book. Stick 
to your work of reporting legitimate business, but don’t, I beg you, try 
to bolster up the moth and canker department of the Chicago Board 
of Trade. 

The writer refers to “Misguided Writers.’’ In the words of 
the Bowery Guy, “Misguided nothing.” He endeavors to befog the 
issue. Our discussion is not upon the one to two per cent, legitimate 
business of the Board of Trade, but upon the gambling in the prices 
of our food products, which said Board has been allowed to carry 
on for lo, these many years. Ever since B. P. H. entered the arena. 
That is the issue and the only issue we are bringing up. 



WHERE THEY DO NOT REQUIRE MARGINAL GAMB¬ 
LING TO CARRY ON A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS 



CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF 
COMMERCE 

“Go Thou and Do Likewise” 


d 



BUFFALO BOARD OF TRADE 
Encourage Righteous Work 



jjll Du 
III! Hit 
)»i III! 
mi lui 
III! III! 



BALTIMORE BOARD OF TRADE 
An Honor to Any City 



























*'Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will 
do. . . . When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a 
liar and the father of it. —John 8: 44. 


CHAPTER FOUR 

Corners and Many Other Devilish Things 

While the revered Joseph’s Egyptian Corner was “constructive 
and helpful, the modern corner has often proved destructive, uneconomic, 
and often very tragic.’’ Most corners are simply Hold Ups, legiti¬ 
mized by speculation’’, the sole object being to embarrass or ruin the 
men who sold the grain short, or who bought ‘ long wind. 

This Corner Gambling generally benefits no one but the successful 
manipulator, and successful hanger-on. The Grower, Miller and Con¬ 
sumer, are usually stung. 

There have been many Cotton Failures due to speculative gambling. 

The so-called “Patten Wheat Deal”, I foretold ten months before 
consummation. Because Patten meddled, the price was carried up 
too soon to suit the Dragon. Not until I found that Patten was in 
the deal, did I find a valid excuse for the early rise. Dragon, in order 
to secure what he felt should be coming to him, carried the price to 
$1.35, which was an abnormal price for that time. The corners of the 
last two years were partially brought on by the war. The manipulator 
had his lines fixed for low prices May, 1915, but upon the startling 
and unexpected announcement of war, he quickly bought in his short 
wheat, and I presume at some loss, and went long of the market millions 
of bushels. He probably will clean up from fifteen to twenty millions. 
Four times out of five, I have been right in my prophesies. I believed 
he had been selling July, September and December options. (Later 
developments proved the correctness of my beliefs.) 

What is he doing now? Buying December and selling future May 
and July wheat options, “to beat the band.” Don’t try to “beat Dragon 
to it”, boys; for he will quickly knock you out of the race. His cards 
are fearfully marked and he has a multitude of aces up his sleeves. How¬ 
ever, fellows, if Dragon had been on the other side of September and 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


67 


December options, you would not see such a great rise, until after those 
options were closed. After the short victims of December option have 
settled (privately with Dragon or otherwise) you will see a May or July 
option smash. Stand from under”, or be crushed. There is no 
just reason for wheat being $1.94 and higher. Gross and base manipu¬ 
lation. He may make a record of over $2.00. 

The cruel brain of Dragon Senior did not get Hutchinson in 
1867, because it was not working at that time upon the Board. 

Dragon Senior began in 1872, and broke Lyon. Small corners 

in 1880, 1881 and 1882 may, or may not, have been the work of 

destruction of this fellow. India began to be a bearish factor. 

Although Harper, of Cincinnati, put through a wheat deal in 
1881, in 1887, this fellow broke him. 

Jack Sturgis cornered wheat in the seventies. Sturgis’ partner 
quietly sold privately, while buying for the Company. When this be¬ 
came known, a bear raid was started, and Sturgis, who was worth at 
the start some five millions, died in poverty. No honor among thieves 
there. In 1879-80 (one gives this 1876) the Jim Keene Corner col¬ 
lapsed. Keene lost three million. ‘‘Old Hutch” helped in the general 
raid. 

I quote again from the Price Current, Grain Reporter of Sept. 29, 

1915, page 22, in a review of ‘‘Corners.” The section is headed with 

‘‘A Little Pork Squeeze.” I give it exact, word for word, so my readers 
may note how they glory in this sort of so-called ‘‘business” of trying to 
ruin one another: 

A Little Pork Squeeze 

‘‘Philip D. Armour engineered a pork corner in 1877, largely be¬ 
cause he was forced into it. It seems to be a matter of authentic history 
that Mr. Armour conducted his pork corner in self-defense. There were 
a combination of bears who had sold to him, who wished to relieve 
him of some of his wealth; and as he had an immense stock of pork 
on hand they persistently kept the market down. However, Mr. Armour 
offered pork for shipment out of Chicago at a much lower price than 
he would sell it in the pits; and the rules then provided that there 
should not be more than seven or eight pieces to a barrel. [Trumped up 
by a Board Committee.] Mr. Armour was keen enough to open the 
barrels of pork which he had on hand and cut the pieces in two, thereby 
making them undeliverable on contract. The result was that the purchas¬ 
ers had to sell them for consumption and could not redeliver them to 
him. Mr. Armour made money out of the corner, and the bears who 
tried to force him into trouble paid the cost.” 





68 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


The E. L. Harper Corner of 1887, was smashed after wheat 
was advanced from 78 to 90 cents. June 14, wheat tumbled to 68 
cents, and the Cincinnati Fidelity Bank was gutted. This was as raw 
a hold-up and robbery as ever occurred in speculative history in gambling 
in Food Products. It should also be stated that some twenty Chicago 
firms went to the wall, and several very nearly. 

Marcossen said of this catastrophe: “Ruin and suicide haunted 
the unhappy depositors, and sorrow and despair were cast into many 
homes as a result of a wild attempt to corner this market.” Harper 
languished in prison for several years, until pardoned by the President. 
He died soon afterward. Think of the old couples that had their 
slowly earned savings, laid up in this bank, to keep them in comfort 
for the remainder of their days, swept away by deceit of Dragon 
Senior. So long as Dragon Junior is allowed to deceive the public, 
our own savings banks are in danger from this same element of 
destruction. 

President Cleveland saw the difference between Hutchinson and 
Harper, in corner running, when they tried to have Harper pardoned. 
“Hutchinson used his own money and Harper used that of others.” 
Speaking of Hutchinson, it is said that he had a marvelous memory. 
He could “trade all day in every market in the country and, without 
making notes, could name over the trades at the close of the day. The 
old buccaneer would not hesitate to jump the market 25 cents, from 
the close of one day to the opening of another. 

Another bank was nearly wrecked in California, by the manager 
of the Nevada Bank becoming crazed by speculation. Mackay came 
to the rescue and made good several millions. After he had paid 
the money out, Mackay said. Let me hear no more of this.” 

Even Russia tried to persuade the United States to enter into 
an agreement to corner wheat at the expense of the world. To the 
credit of Uncle Sam ’, a courteous reply was returned that, “As a 
nation. Corner Gambling was not the business of the Government.” 

In 1 888, Hutchinson squeezed a crowd in a “Corner” to the tune 
of a couple of million or more. After $2.00 wheat had been reached 
and the deal closed up, the brokers sang: 

“I see ‘Old Hutch’ start for the Club— 

Good-by, my money, good-by! 

He has given us all a pretty tough rub_ 

Good-by, my money, good-by”! 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


69 


I gave Dragon Senior two years to crush Hutchinson. Senior 
took his scalp in one year and a half; and from being a millionaire, 
he was found running a junk or meat shop in New York City. His 
family brought him back to Chicago and set him up in a cigar store. 
He died almost in darkness and oblivion. Thus ended the earthly 
existence of a mortal who started “scalping” and “short selling”, yes, 
and “long buying”, in 1856. 

After the ruin of Hutchinson, in 1 891, Pardridge, who had risen 
in power, arose in his might; and after making several millions, paid 
tribute of a million or so to Dragon Senior. Senior would sometimes 
allow little fish grow to a goodly size, then nab them. 

In August of 1891, Pardridge was short in the market and ran 
out of cash margin, although he had plenty of other security, and was 
bought in by his brokers. He lost $500,000. Dragon banked most 
of this, together with what Ream and others lost, say two or three 
million. However, much of Lyon’s loss was taken from profits. Before 
this he made about $750,000 a year. He and his wife had assets 
of over four millions. Pardridge settled in full to the melody of a 
million, more or less. At the end of the deal he was a nervous wreck, 
and retired from fighting one stronger than he. Now Senior began 
to get his fangs well in. In 1 893, he caused a lard corner to come 
to grief. 

In 1897-8, Joseph Leiter worked a corner which Dragon finally 
punctured, by the use of steel pointed tugs, breaking the ice and rushing 
wheat to Chicago and selling against the future May option. Leiter 
had Dragon in his clutches; and if Leiter had limited his deals to 
July, September and December options, he would have beaten the 
giant, and cleaned up several millions of dollars. Leiter and his 
associate French were successful in July of 1898; and having tasted 
a little blood, tried the game for September, and again won out. Again 
they plunged into December. Here Senior Dragon was pitted against 
them, and about ten to twelve millions of cash wheat was dumped 
upon them. Leiter still continued to buy the next May option. Here 
is where he made his mistake, and our master manipulator had 
Leiter in ruins to the deficit of somewhere to $8,000,000, which his 
father paid to save family honor. I presume that these millions with 
several hundred more, are reposing safely in Europe, to the credit 
of Dragon Junior. However, in this Leiter Deal, the country profited 
to the extent of about $100,000,000; at that time a very unusual 





70 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


performance upon the part of our country cousins, the farmers, for they 
sell when they ought not, and hold fast when they should release. 
They have had a good time during this war. Still I would advise 
them to sell all they have, for there will be a slaughter before the end 
of next May and July, unless Dragon changes his mind. 

In 1892 the Coster-Martin Corn Corner was smashed from $1 
to 49c, in a few minutes. The Bank of Montreal refusing to cash 
a cheque, started the rush. We can imagine who influenced the bank. 
Coster later committed suicide in New York City. 

The career of Phillips, in the later 90s, was spectacular. From 
a poor country boy and shucker of com, by dilligent study and careful 
preparation he and Daniel Hill, a farmer customer of Phillips’, made 
nearly $200,000 on a corn deal. The next corn deal ruined him. 
Credit the Dragon. The greatest corn corner was in 1902. Several 
millions were lost by Gates and Cudahy Brothers, and Dragon Senior 
again grabs the boodle. All this is a matter of history. 

Corners have been broken by Minneapolis Millers. They sold 
their elevator wheat at high prices, then bought it back at low figures 
before it left their elevators. The elevator men, big dealers and profes¬ 
sional traders in Chicago, are generally bears. 

The Peter McGoc lard corner of 1 883 was broken by a low-down 
trick. Some speculators loaded the lard with cotton seed oil and dumped 
the product upon poor Pete as genuine. But that was not the worst 
trick. The largest lard deal was the Cudahy-Fairbanks of 1 892. They 
made a 1 0c profit per pound. In the second deal Dragon Senior swept 
them from the Board. Cudahy lost $6,000,000 to him. Brokers to 
the right and left failed. 

Cudahy was trimmed several times by the Dragon Senior, in 
both wheat and lard; Dragon even going from bank to bank, bor¬ 
rowing their surplus money and leaving a bad word or two about 
Cudahy, so that he could not secure margin credit. This was one of 
the favorite tricks of Dragon Senior. 

One writer says that corners are a thing of the past. He is sadly 
mistaken. Since the European war began, we have had many corners 
and squeezes, but they were worked so smoothly the poor dear public 
did not realize it. 

After the abnormal pressure of the May option of wheat to 
$1.58J I noted a little skirmish among members of the Federal Trade 
Commission and that “there would be no Federal investigation.” Then 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


71 


there would be”, and “there wouldn’t be”, etc. This is about as 
wobbly as some political administrations. And at that time we had 
been cursed by four or five corners and squeezes since the European 
war began. How impotent is this “Glorious Government.” 

London blames “Yankees” for the high price of bread, and 
rightly. And with all of this rise, our Walla Walla farmers are 
holding for more. My advice is, Don’t hold it any further than 
December, if as far. 

I will speak of some of the large fish who have been feeding upon 
the smaller ones in other Juggernauts, and have at last landed in the 
jaws of the Dragon. 

I need only mention the Cotton Corner failures of Biddle. Sequel, 
bank ruined. Ranger, in 1879. Watts, in the early 80s. A German 
crowd later. Range, of Galveston. Inman, a sort of Armour in 
cotton. Labousse. Price, the Napoleon of Cotton, in 1900, with 
liabilities $1 3,000,000, with fading assets. To the credit and honor of 
Price, it must be added that in a few years he cleared up the balance 
of debt, of one million. Dan Sully and Patten, were active. 

Again Lawson hits the mark, in reference to corners and panics, 
especially the “Amalgamated.” “Look for the records of that 
dreadful day in the history of thousands of blasted corners and 
ruined lives. On the headstone of suicides’ graves, on the tablets of 
felons’ cells, it is typed in letters of blood and iron. But its deepest, 
saddest chronicle, is in the hearts of the mothers and wives, whose 
sons and husbands perished in that cruel clash of embattled millions.” 

We note that even heavy operators have received it in the “Solar 
Plexis.” There was Heinze, who might have sold his holdings for 
$12,000,000, passed on worth less than one and one-half millions. 
Heinze knew copper, but not the Wall Street brand. 

Cudahy with all of his talents, environment and backing, and 
should have passed out with $25,000,000, to his financial credit; 
lost at one time $6,000,000, besides many others to the Dragon; 
left only about three. The article sayeth not which Cudahy. Many 
merchants could not stick to their lasts. And there are others. 

Lawson, in summing up “The Amalgamated”, says; “Of my 
personal knowledge, Americans and Europeans were plundered of over 
$100,000,000, and there were thirty suicides directly caused by this 
and a large number, over twenty, of respectable citizens, were made 
convicts. By the modern dollar making, they were converted into 
beasts of prey. Who engineerd this? Henry H. Rogers, Wm. 
Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller, The National City Bank, James 



72 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Stillman the head; Jos. O. Addicks, F. Augustus Heinze, Jas. R. 
Keene. These have to answer for the evil they have worked.” 

One could apply to Dragon Senior, the words of Lawson: ‘‘I 
have no hesitation in stating that experience has shown me that, provided 
there is a profit ahead, frenzied financiers, from the highest to the lowest, 
will commit any crime in the Decalogue, and that without the slightest 
twinge or buck of conscience.” 

The ‘‘Industrial Commission stated that J. D. Rockefeller and 
J. D., Jr., were responsible for the murders committed lately in the 
Colorado Coal Fields.” I merely mention this without comment. 

One Speculator answered, when asked in regard to his corner, 
‘‘Flow far do you want to go in this matter”? To any extent that 
will keep me out of the penitentiary.” 

Many operators use wash sales, and are less honest than Book¬ 
makers at horse races. They are like rascals who bet against horses, 
then bribe men to drug them, or ‘Jockeys’ to ‘puli’ them. 

Russell Sage is said to have lost in ‘‘Puts and Calls” in one 
day, in 1 888, about Seven Million Dollars. It is further stated that 
he ‘‘curtailed that branch of his business.” 

There are times when for weeks the grain market would be kept 
within a range of two to five cents, and you might think that manipu¬ 
lators were dead, sleeping at their posts, or gone fishing. The fiires 
were simply smothered for a time; only to break into fury later, like 
some disturbed volcano. It takes time to create a new option. 

This master manipulator. Dragon, by means of correspondents 
scattered throughout the world, with hundreds of clerks, keeps tab 
upon crop prospects, true visible supply, how much the farmers are 
holding, etc., better than any one else in the world; also has a good 
record of where the Option purchases and sales come from; when 
and at what price to shake out the holders; when to turn the market, 
after they are shaken out. This requires great subtlety. Of Dragon 
we might well say, as Keene said of himself: “The whole world is my 
spy.” The habitues of the “Pit” are afraid of Dragon as they 
are of the “Evil One.” They watch his brokers like hawks. Suppose 
he should jump into the pit as butten-headed Senior used to; you cer¬ 
tainly would think that “Hades” had broken loose. And yet, the 
old game of “credit given for saving the market” can not be worked 
upon the public any more. We will look for something new from 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


73 


now on. Why should one put himself up against such a confidence 
game? 

Here is the position taken by a former commission broker, more in 
the legitimate line. He argued that because a manipulator had the 
data, means and power [and collected gambling paraphernalia] he 
was justified in getting his brothers into corners and squeezes; causing 
other millions to suffer. The same old effete argument of “Divine 
right of Kings”, royal or monied. The “Divine right” should “kick 
out” and the United States “kick in” and correct this. 

The “London Spectator” of June 18, 1898, says: “A good 
man may hold a share in a Diamond or Silk Trust; but could not, 
without violence to his conscience, hold one in a Corn, Salt or Fuel 
Trust. A monopoly of a thing not particularly needed, does not 
seem bad; but a monopoly of a necessity, is bad, both from the view 
of a moralist and that of a politician.” 

Dragon Senior, besides running corners and smashing others for 
his own profit, was so mean and selfish, that he ruined even his own 
brokers, where he found them following in his wake. He should have 
joined the fraternity of that fellow who was so close that he would nt 
even “spend the evening, he’d pass it”—with apologies to “Tad. He 
would give no one a chance, whatever. He kept his eye upon every 
one in any way associated with him. Being among the sharpest set of 
speculators we have, he had to. If any one crossed his path, woe be 
unto him. It would have been better for him, if he had never entered 
this mortal existence. 

What were the last days of Dragon Senior; this one-sided, crafty, 
vindictive, cruel robber? He had paresis of the brain, and had to 
be led around as you would pilot an imbecile. 

When this man appeared (or appears) before the Divine Judge, 
what could he say when asked:—“Did you love and cherish your 
brother as yourself”? What will the Son say, if he continues in 
the present line of conduct, when he appears before the Divine Bar 
of Justice? “Did you love and cherish your brother as yourself”? 
Would you not think that his son would want to change his tactics, 
and do some good during his life; and not continue the course of his 
father? We would naturally say, yes. However, we can not appre¬ 
ciate the tremendous temptation, superinduced by possessing this enor¬ 
mous power. Think of ruling the food prices of the world. Could 
we withstand the temptation of such power? I think not. This man 



74 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


should be protected from himself. I am not delivering an eulogy. I 
and giving facts, not fancies; warnings, not foibles; protection, not 
pitfalls; and appealing to your highest ideals, not catering to base 
desires; and the desire to get something for nothing. 

Marcossen says: “Food and Clothes are the essentials of life. 
The men who attempt to corner the staples that provide them, in 
order to extort extravagant graft, and to put his competitor at a 
disadvantage serves no economic purpose; and by some mystic rule 
of retribution, always comes to grief.” 

Marcossen! My dear sir! You have not taken into considera¬ 
tion, one Dragon and his progeny to whom this “Mystic Rule”, for the 
last forty years, could not be applied. No power but the Government 
can stop him from continuance in making and smashing “Corners.” 




Her prophets are light and' treacherous persons; her priests have pol¬ 
luted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law” —Zeph. 3: 4. 

Even as ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” —Matt. 23: 28. 


CHAPTER FIVE 


The Powerful System 

Now reader, I will show, and I hope prove to you,, that there 
is a system employed upon the Chicago, and other Boards of Trade; 
a System pernicious and blighting in its finish of the individual; and 
it is followed to the ruin of nearly all who trade upon said boards. 
I will not take time to show you how to trade upon the board, although 
I could do so; for many of my readers are undoubtedly pastmasters 
in that art. I will, however, give you some examples. 

A spotter, or worker up of business, or some one who has been 
successful for a few months upon the board, confides in a friend and 
shows how easy it is to crop a few dollars without working. He 
finally influences this friend to invest two or three hundred or thousand 
dollars. The market goes against him and he has to put up two or 
three hundred, or thousand more to protect his deal. This also disap¬ 
pears in like manner, and he loses $500, or $5,000, which is not 

unusual. I remember of one fat lubber, a remittance man who lost 

several thousands, many of them against my advice. Now if this one 
who lost $5,000 had a tendency to gamble in this way, if he did 
but realize it and becomes wise; it was the best investment he could 
make in this line; for ten to one he will quit right there and never 

touch another option. This victim might well appreciate the old 

fashioned epitaph placed over a baby’s grave: “I was so quickly 
done for, I wonder why I [was] begun for.” 

You might say, if he were wise, he never would have touched 
one in the first place. Many of us have to learn wisdom by experience 
and expense. The author of this book made a little pot of $1,000 
in one fine day, and was spoiled. He became crazy as any loon 
that ever flew over hill and dale. He soon had 100,000 bushels 
of wind wheat bought, and in a short time, was a real shorn lamb, 



76 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 

with no more fleece left than the proverbial one. No remarks please! 
I often remember what Lewis said: Goin forth to shear, he was 

shorn.” 

Let us take another subject not quite so personal. One is led to 
invest, and unfortunately the market goes with him. He feels some¬ 
what like the man who was going on a journey; and before starting 
invested in Pork. After a few days, a letter came to his wife,, in 
which he wrote, “Pork is up, God is good. (As if the Supreme 
Being would entertain such a thought.) A week later, another letter 
read, ‘‘Pork is down. Good God.” 

Now if this second victim was a practical speculator or a room 
trader, he would have taken a nice little profit and stayed away from 
the market for a while, and let the other fellow have some profit, if 
he could get it. By staying around the board where quotations are 
put up, you become hypnotized. But no, the usual person wants a 
little more and overstays the market. He is one who wants it all, 
and there are others. This is unfortunate, for he is being spoiled for 
sane work. He simply can not get out of the market and he is now 
well in the toils of the power, and goes from bad to worse. The 
market ascends for a day, and he sees visions of many thousands; a 
palace, yacht, and trips to Europe and around the world. The next 
day, the market goes down with a slump. Curses upon the luck! 
What can he sell or mortgage in order to secure more margin. He is 
totally unfit for business or social pleasures. If he has a family, the 
Lord help the members. The poor fellow is twisted and turned and 
maltreated, until his days are full of misery, and in many cases there 
are added poverty, ruin, dope, suicide and a potter’s field. 

Many traders are like bull dogs who won’t let go, or wrestlers 
and warring nations, who would be glad to quit, but who are afraid to. 

Of many of these it might be said, as was reported of a bank 
client. The Bank Examiner said: 

“I have to report that this debtor has no property, either real or 
personal; no credit, either actual or potential; no prospects, present or 
future, and no hope, either here or hereafter.” 

While there have been some lucky ones (and such ones rarely 
hang around the market or quotation board) there have been thousands 
of such wrecks strewn over our land during the last forty years’ reign 
of this Juggernaut. These you do not hear of. The ghosts of Wall 
and LaSalle Streets would fill thousands of haunted castles. Do you 





DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


77 


want this sort of company? Then enlist. If not; then consider this 
as you would rank poison; and also remember that 95 to 98 per cent, 
of these traders, or suckers, lose. 

Lawson says that “the ‘Amalgamated’ begotten in 1898 and born 
in 1899, had, up to 1904, been responsible for more Hell than any 
other trust or financial body since the world began.” That was for 
about five years, and $100,000,000 the toll. This at Chicago, has 
been going on for over sixty years, and I know not how many hundred 
millions have been lost. What kind of a Hell is that? 

I will now give you another example of how a man becomes 
interested in speculation; how he is twisted and turned; raised to the 
heaven of financial bliss; now carried as far away from this point as 
possible, until by various tricks, he is bruised, hammered, racked and 
torn, until we have a wretched apology for a man, if not a crazy one. 

What do you think of a power that is trying, by means of all 
the tricks that the manipulator is provided with, to get you to invest 
your money in such a manner that you are sure to lose it? Is there any 
difference between this mode and that of a confidence man? 

Most asuredly not, except in the size of the wallet. 

Sometimes a poor victim is short on the market to the Power, 
and not wanting to buy in at a loss, buys a future month option hoping 
to even up. Now it often happens that this is just what the manipulator 
desires him to do; as that is the month he is selling. For example, 
in January, 1915,—May wheat was about three cents away from 
July. Week by week they parted company. I knew very well what 
game was being played. In time they were nearly 40 cents aparti. 
The poor lambs were sheared upon both sides, at the same time. That 
was the worst example I ever witnessed for thirty years. This was 
during the late European war, and is called a “Spread”, or “Straddle.” 

Sometimes in a spread of this kind, too much will occur during 
one or two days, and it is noticed by the regular traders. Then how 
quickly he changes his tactics for a few days. Sometimes he will 
close the spread for a week or two. Sometimes he will lure his victims 
on to follow him by continuing the spread, and one fine day he snaps it 
together like a mouse trap, and there you are caught. Whenever you 
feel that you are solidly on the road to financial success, then you are 
in the midst of danger. 

We do not say much about this manipulator’s putting many firms 
out of business, by underselling (that used to be a favorite dodge with 
Dragon Senior) for here he gives the public something for their money. 



78 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


The Government is attending to this business. What we do strenuously 
object to, is his going on to the Chicago Board of Trade and manipu¬ 
lating the markets, using his legitimate business in getting you interested 
to plank down your money, only to lose it, without your receiving any 
material benefit. In this, we leave out the moral side, you note. 

Dragon tries to vary the program from day to day, as to opening, 
also closing and general manipulation of the market. Must make it 
interesting, you know, or the gamblers won’t play. He must keep his 
fish interested by wigwagging the bait. As far as the day-to-day pro¬ 
gram goes, your might just as well have some one put figures on the 
board, you guessing whether the next figure will be higher or lower. 

Suppose he has thousands of barrels of pork contracts bought 
and he thinks it is about time to raise the price. He gently moves 
the price to and fro for a few weeks, quietly boosting the price; and 
after a while, will have some of his numerous correspondents wire re¬ 
ports of Hog Cholera in Paudonck or Trichinosis in Ballatava; and 
those short to him will rush to cover, and up goes the price of pork with¬ 
out any effort upon his part; until he stops the mad buying by selling 
out his long options, or selling short. Many a time has he fooled 
Cudahy, Morris, Swift, Hammond and others, and taken their money. 
Like the Opium Gang, when one plan of operation is fathomed, another 
is quickly invented. But where the opium smugglers have $ 100 to 
back them, this fellow has $1,000,000 at his beck and call. 

And still another trick. Sometimes he will wigwag the market 
so fast and wide, that the brokers become frightened and call for ex¬ 
cessive margins; and not having it handy, the traders are simply sold 
out in the pit; and our manipulator, happy in the haul he has made, 
raises the market to heights sublime, and the victim’s eyes glisten with 
tears as the price mounts. Isn’t he surely the emissary of the Devil? 

This talk about Rockefeller, Rogers, Stillman, et al.; why in 
Chicago, as I have said, we have the craftiest robber of them all. He 
is always glad to have some Goat like McGeoch, Pardridge, Leiter 
or Patten to throw credit upon as a cause of these great sweeps of val¬ 
ues. How to get evidence against him, is the study of our Govern¬ 
ment. They do not go about it in the right way. How foolish to 
subpoena Patten, Leiter, Armour, Swift, or any other Chicago man 
to secure evidence against the Chicago Board of Trade. Will they 
give incriminating evidence? Not on their lives. That is a matter for 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


79 


the Secret Service, and would cost many hundreds of thousands, to carry 
it out to perfection. 

During my sojourn of a week upon the Board of Trade, securing 
information at first hand—when the poor lambs on the outside, who 
were being shorn; were bleating so hard that the heart of the most 
calloused sinner should have been touched; what were the shearing 
brokers doing? Dancing like Dervishes, jostling and bantering one 
another, knocking off hats, swaying and bellowing the latest popular 
song, full of mocking ribaldry, while waiting ! for the pit to boil, in 
order to scalp a few more commissions of eighths and sixteenths. 

But you may ask, should we disband the Board of Trade? No! 
But the Government, in every way possible, should hamper this gambling 
in the PRICE of food products. Let the members be satisfied with 
legitimate dealings and a fair profit, giving the traders a fair show. We 
need the Board of Trade, but we do not need this wind wheat specula¬ 
tion. I presume that a fair amount of speculation is the life of trade, 
but this abnormal gambling should be forever cut off. No one wants 
to prevent an actual owner from selling his goods for a fixed price for 
a future delivery. That is different. He is not short selling something 
he does not own, and trying to depress the value of others’ property. 

You say you have a lot of wheat, which can be protected by sell¬ 
ing an option on the Board. That is different, as far as you are con¬ 
cerned. The manipulator, however, does not want your wheat, for 
as Hutchinson would say, “It is difficult to get rid of the corpse.’’ He 
would much prefer that you sell against him at times, when you do not 
have any wheat to furnish in settlement of your losses. 

I have positive proof from one who lives in the city where I now 
reside. He said he had sold his wheat and oats over and over again, 
from 30 to 35 times. They would send him the cash difference. They 
did not want his wheat or oats. He also reported that a friend of his 
had carried on a similar business for a time. 

Frank G. Delany writes interestingly, in the “Price Current-Grain- 
Reporter’’ of September 29, 1915, of the Chicago Board of Trade, 
but complaining that— 

“Newspapers and magazines had been during the era of muck¬ 
raking displaying a persistency that was remarkable in printing articles 
that, however speciously written, were born of ignorance, all tending 
to convince the reader that exchanges were an unmixed evil.’’ 

“Most people being somewhat disposed to believe the sensational 
they were gradually coming to the view that boards of trade and com- 



80 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


mercial exchanges in general were dens of iniquity, were simply organ¬ 
ized blood-suckers, preying on producer and consumer without dis¬ 
tinction as opportunity offered.” 

‘‘We have heard here in Chicago men whose attainments should 
have promised a better knowledge, expressing the opinions that exchanges 
were gambling institutions and an evil too long tolerated.” 

How about Judges Grosscup, Anderson and Mulky and Attorney 
Fullen? Their judgment can certainly be relied upon. 

‘‘We have heard every sharper who has been caught in the toils 
of the law defending the operations of his ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme by 
comparing it to the Board of Trade. We heard only recently a scheme 
for race track betting described as being designed by capable attorneys 
to be ‘just as legal as the operations on the Board of Trade.’ And 
so it is small wonder that many men who should know better have 
allowed themselves to absorb the impression that the Chicago Board 
of Trade is nothing more than a high-toned institution in which gambling 
is carried on as a business, with grain and provisions used as the cur¬ 
rency in the game. Nothing could be farther from the truth.” 

I can honestly say that nothing can be nearer the truth. 

‘‘At the present time its membership numbers over 1,600, and its 
members are scattered from Liverpool, England, to San Francisco. 
About 1,200 of its members are actively engaged in business here in 
Chicago.” 

1 he Board maintains statistical bureaus, the honesty and accuracy 
of whose worx have never been questioned. The resultant mass of in¬ 
formation is distributed gratuitously, of course, although its collection 
involves enormous continuous labor and expense. It brings to the 
exchange floor the market news of all the world. All of the daily 
newspapers are represented on the Board, and the information is through 
newspapers given to the waiting outside world.” 

Put to right use, what a valuable aggregation of force. Put to 
illegitimate use by a monster, who rules the Board of Trade with an 
iron hand, what a power for evil and home destruction and ‘‘distributed 
gratuitously,” Holy Moses! 

In describing the wheat pit”,, he quotes a novelist who described 
it as being, “only thirty feet wide, but which leads straight to hell.” 
That author told an alarming truth. One person remarked that the 
wheat pit looked like “a lunatic asylum going on a spree.” 

The Board handled approximately 362,000 cars, or nearly 656 
million bushels of grain. This turned into dollars on the basis of 1914 
values would represent perhaps a turnover of approximately a million 
dollars a day for every business day.” 

Where does he get away with the billion gambled in. 

Delany refers to traders from “Vladivostock, Tokio, Hongkong 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


81 


or Calcutta; Constantinople, Naples, Paris or Cape Town; Sydney, 
Australia, or Buenos Aires; Stockholm, Vienna, Liverpool or Winni¬ 
peg; San Francisco or Berlin; London or Rio de Janeiro, on reaching 
his office turns invariably to ascertain the Chicago quotations on wheat; 
for though he may not trade in Chicago wheat directly (although it 
would be surprising to tabulate the amount of business that comes to 
the Chicago pits from these foreign lands, in the way of ‘hedging.’ ” 

Please refer to my “Chart” on page 82. 

“Every bushel of grain which is bought or sold on the Board of 
Trade is actually delivered when the contract matures.” 

Oh, Delany how can you make such a statement? You know 
it can’t be true. The reader is referred to Chapter XII., where Attorney 
Chas. D. Fullen and other legal lights expatiate a little upon this. He 
does not tell of the “Round Turn” and the “Ring Method.” Of 
course not. The following is pretty near the truth: 

“It is true that one of you here may instruct me to buy 
5,000 bushels of May wheat today (5,000 bushels of May wheat 
means 5,000 bushels of No. 2 wheat delivered in public elevator in 
Chicago by the seller some day during the month of May—the seller 
may determine the day, unless specifically stipulated otherwise). I 
buy this 5,000 bushels of wheat. A month from now you conclude 
that you don’t want to carry this wheat trade any longer, so you instruct 
me to sell out your wheat. I do so. In order to do so I must find a 
buyer. I go into the pit and find a buyer and make sale for your 
account.” « 

So you see that 5,000 bushels of wheat might be sold 1,000 
times and no commodity passed. He agrees that “ a warehouse 
receipt may in a month pass through a dozen deliveries”, and yet no 
commodity passed. He continues: 

“Trading in future deliveries is the feature of Board of Trade 
activities” [about 99 per cent.] “that is most roundly condemned by 
those who are ‘apt makers of phrases.’ They style it ‘wind wheat”; 
they call it ‘gambling in the people’s breadstuffs.’ ” 

On page 18 of the same issue, Delany endeavors to gloss over 
the ravings of the action of the wheat pit, calling it “competition raised 
to the nth power, whatever that may be. Of course he ignored the 
iniquitous underhanded power, that was mysteriously moving the market 
toward dangerous cataracts and whirlpools of loss, poverty, family 
destruction and suicide. He closes with a few high sounding phrases: 

“We have been put to the test; we have been tried, and we have 
not been found wanting and so, as I have stated in my opening para¬ 
graphs, the American public, with the object lesson so recent, to its 
eternal credit, has changed its mind, and I believe that* we as a part of it 



82 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


will not forget the experience of 1914 and 1915. The Board of 
Trade fears not its record. It asks nothing more from the American 
people than to be judged by its work, according to American standards 
of fairness, by those intelligently composed to judge and to continue 
the gradual but sure development of nearly seventy years to a point 
where it will serve the interests of us all better each year as the years 
pass on.” 

I only need to call attention to pages 22 and 24 of the above 
named issue to recall to the reader the wrecks caused by corners. The 
writer stated: 

‘‘Trading in grain for future delivery is now entirely on a 
commercial basis. During the past forty years, however, there have 
been a number of spectacular corners which have achieved much pub¬ 
licity through the press and which have materially influenced the public 
in believing that the Chicago Board of Trade is an immense ‘gambling 
institution.’ However, this belief is being dissipated fast as the public 
generally gives its attention to economic subjects.” 

‘‘Corners are now a thing of the past.” 

What a misstatement. We have had four or more corners and 
squeezes in the last two years, or so. 

‘‘Corners in the grain business have been largely matters of acci¬ 
dent.” 

Good Lord! 

For the benefit of those who do not understand just what a corner 
is, we can best illustrate it by saying that grain is traded in for future 
delivery for certain months. This is the month of September. Those 
who have sold grain and cannot secure it to deliver on contracts are 
‘short.’ ” 

That is the evil that should be eradicated. 

‘‘Under conditions prevailing on the Board a few years ago, the 
man who had bought could ‘corner the market’ and exact from the 
man who had sold to him but could not deliver this month, every cent 
that he could squeeze out of him.” 

Lovely business, isn’t it? 

‘‘However, under the rules of the Board, as they have since been 
formulated, a corner is now practically impossible.” 

How about the above four? 

But why go on. The people will awake from their dream some 
time, I hope. 

Napoleon in speaking with his master of finance, Mollien, strenu¬ 
ously argued that those who speculated in the national securities with 
the anticipation that the prices at a future time would be lower were 
no less than traitors to France. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


83 


I agree with Nalopeon, and will state further that he who sells 
short the food products of the world, thereby defrauding the farmer 
and provision packer, is a traitor to his brothers, and to his country. 

John F. C. Merrill in an able article tries to bolster up speculation 
in wheat, etc.: 

“Tested by these alone, I submit that unlike gambling and similai 
to the operation of insurance, speculation in the grain and produce trade 
of the world is amply justified by its economic contributions to the 
public good.” 

Mr. Merrill, do blasted homes scattered all over our land properly 
justify this? 

Then he proceeds to “pass the buck”: 

“If it is illegal, or immoral, to sell something, the title of which 
you do not at the present time possess, or, to buy something which you 
do not expect to use, but only to result as you hope at a profit, then 
whatever its economic benefits, speculation in the produce trade or in 
any other has no reason for existence.” 

If the majority of this nation consider it moral to depress the 
value of another man’s goods, and by deceit and chicanery rob him 
and take away the means of properly bringing up a family; our nation 
should be pitied. No, Mr. Merrill, the majority is growing very fast, 
that condemns this option farce not only as immoral but also as a 
swindling robbery. 



SPECULATIVE GAMBLING OF THE MOST RABID SORT 



GRANT AND WARD FAILURE IN WALL STREET IN 1884 
The Shame and Pity of It 



CAUGHT 


Like Fish in a Net 


W HERE THEY ARE HYPNOTIZED 
Like a Leopard’s Tail, Rooted to the Spot 
and Spotted to the Root P 























“And / saiv three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth 
of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth 
of the false prophet .”—Rev. 16: 13. 


CHAPTER SIX 


Short Selling and Other Errors 


Here is one explanation of short selling, which is perhaps some¬ 
what paradoxical. It is sometimes difficult to try to sell wheat which 
you do not own, to some one who does not want it; and after he gets 
this mess of wind pottage, wishes he hadn’t it; so he sells what he 
hasn’t to some one who does not particularly desire it, and thus repeats 
the process of elimination. You can easily see where we are at. 

It reminds me of a “Round” in music, that we used to sing in 
“Ye olden tymes”; and also reminds me of a song a dear brother 
of mine used to sing, in “Yankee Land”; one in the lighter vein. The 
text dilates upon the adverse charms of an affinity, as having “a mole 
on her cheek as red as a beet, it looked like a big cod fish ball”, and 
“Her mouth when it opened looked like a mouse trap, it worked on a 
spring I suppose.” “But then she’s a beauty long side of my wife, 
and to-morrow I’ll get a divorce, and the secret it, I don’t mind telling 
you, I’ll marry this young girl of course.” The Chorus is the point 
in question, and runs as follows: “Now you know what I know, and 
what my wife don’t know. She don’t know what I know, but what I 
know you know; If you tell her what you know and also what I know. 
Then she’ll know what I know, what you know, also.” And there 
you are. 

It is the short selling manipulators at Chicago, that get you. They 
are willing to sell you wind, which they do not even own, any day of 
the week, and on Sundays, if they could. 

You try to sell Short a few bank shares, that you do not own, 
and see where you would land. But why is a bank more sacred 
than the proprietor of a wheat and corn field. Is he not just as worthy 
of protection? 

Think of the graft and drain upon the people, besides the robbings. 
The commissions to brokers besides the tribute to the manipulator, 




86 DRAGON A ND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 

amount to millions. Seats upon the New York Stock Exchange, have 
sold from $25,000 to $100,000. The latest price I believe was about 
$75,000. That of the Chicago Board of Trade is from $25,000 to 
$27,000. Remember that the victims pay for most of this. The 
manipulator has his work done for him at a special discount rate. Davis 
says that more wheat has been sold upon the New York Stock Exchange 
in one day than could be delivered in twelve months. At that rate 
some day’s work of the Chicago Board, would take several years to 
deliver. 

Take Cotton Gambling. Not one bale in a 1,000, is delivered. 
One man declared in 1 894, “that for the last twenty years, the South 
has been defrauded of $500,000,000.” 

To return to wheat. It is interesting to note how ingeniously 
Dragon Junior starts a future option, say from six to eleven months 
before the option has to be settled. One day you will notice there was 
a call for some month not quoted before. This may be the only call 
for a week, or there may be a call for this option for several days and 
then a respite. This mode is carried on for a time, until a regular 
trade is set up in this option month. 

Wash sales are used to create a new option. 

As previously remarked, the person who hangs around the Board 
Quotations, becomes hypnotized and soon is lost in the confusion of 
figures and changes. When he does act, he acts about as the manipu¬ 
lator desires him to; that is, on the opposite side from what the manipu¬ 
lator is working. How often have I noticed this. Remember that 
you are hypnotized into a state of believing that the market is going 
higher, when the trend of the market is all the time going lower. This 
trend you have lost sight of, if you ever had a vision of it at first. It 
was useless to try to convince those hypnots, as I call them. The 
Dragon’s power was uppermost. 

You become bound hand and foot. By what means? By con¬ 
summate deceit and chicanery. You become abject slaves. Well did 
Burke utter these words: “The people never give up their liberties, but 
under some delusion.” We have here one of the most pernicious of 
delusions and snares. 

Much of the telegraph advice sent out from Chicago and New 
York, should, if absorbed, be taken with large grains of salt. Also 
take little stock in the advice that is spirited over the wires to the 
papers, as valuable. Our Manipulator has had much of this news 





DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


87 


for so long a time before you read it, that it has grown an extended 
beard. He has the best bureau of statistics in the world, and makes use 
of this valuable (?) news, days and weeks before it reaches you. Has 
cooked news” sent by high salaried ‘‘bright sparks” from Argentine, 
India or Paducah; as they used to start ‘‘bunk” news from St. Peters¬ 
burg to Germany; thence to reputable banks in London; thence to the 
world, in order to fool them. 

This Dragon takes advantage of war, various calamities, fire, flood, 
disease, wrong reports by our Government, and leaks from the same 
source, disseminates wrong crop grossip and telegram dope. Pulls out 
Green Bugs, Hessian Flies, Chinch Bugs, Rust, Drouth, Smut and 
“Bob” Weavil. Creates wash sales. That is, appear to be buying, 
when he was selling ten times as much through other brokers. Closing 
the market one day, leaving the appearance as if when the market 
would open the next morning, it might go to perdition, getting as many 
traders short as possible; and when the market does open next morn¬ 
ing, you will find that it is from one to three, ten or twenty cents 
higher. Thus you are ham-strung, and vice versa, high closing and 
a smash at the opening. You might as well throw your gold into the 
middle of the ocean as to expect to ultimately see your money again. 
Here are how the farmers are fooled. In June and July a farmer 
sees the September option at a premium and concludes to wait to sell, 
but as September comes nearer, down comes the price of wheat, cash 
being depressed and futures exalted, the elevator man taking the dif¬ 
ference in profit. t 

Then again, in low priced times the farmer raises small crops, 
and manipulator takes advantage of this, and vice versa, in high-price 
times. 

They will stoop to anything to gain their ends. Once a Keene 
Broker received an order from New York to sell three million wheat; 
and after the market closed, found that a bear clique at Chicago had 
forged the order. 

Some years ago, farmers of the Central West, asked some manipu¬ 
lators at Chicago to start a corner, and furnished money to help them. 
They received a present help. BUT! they placed a noose around their 
necks, and it has been there ever since. 

I hear you say, some gain and have success. Yes, but such a 
small per cent. You hear of these, but how few of the thousands 
that lose. Do you wish to take your chances with 98 per cent, losers 






88 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULA TION 


and 2 per cent, gainers? Like Wall Street, a list of the Shorn Lambs 
are never published. 

I am one of the tens of thousands of unlisted, that have been 
fleeced during the last fifty years, and I am not ashamed to stand up 
and say so. 

However, I would feel ashamed if I should be so foolish as to 
don the noose again. As some hyphenate might say, It vas de phools 
ve vish to zave, don’d it” ? 

Young gentlemen, if error ever suggests to you, that you might 
be One of the 2 per cent, immediately say, “Get thee behind me 
Satan.” And don’t stop there, but administer a good swift kick, for good 
measure. 

After what I have shown you; how you have no chance at all 
in this business of wind and water; how every move is made to fool 
you and, practically every card is marked; how, when you try to save 
yourself, you are balked at every turn, until your margins are pared here, 
hewn there, and in despair you collapse into utter confusion. Do 
you want to engage in battle with this ferocious beast? If, with this 
knowledge, gained by practical experience, you do; you will deserve 
whatever you receive. 

Anyone who has read articles written by Thomas Lawson for 
the last seven or eight years, and then grapples with the New York 
Stock Exchange, deserves whatever treatment he may receive there. 

Along with you own mistakes, there may be an accident (some¬ 
times made on paper) that will occur. The members of the firm 
that has your margins in hock, may disappear like schooners that 
enter a fog. In case of Bucket Shops, they often disappear like 
manna before the rising sun. You rarely have any recourse. The 
Government can’t seem to issue any power to return lost margins. The 
Government should be made to pay these losses for having licensed 
such institutions. The Bucket Shops are disappearing like the Red 
Men, and likewise speculative gambling at Chicago and other cities 
must get into the procession. It is only a matter of time. But we 
should hasten the time and save our misguided people. 

As Rogers was the wire puller and master of Standard Oil, 
and at the receiving end of the greatest Information Bureau in the 
world; so is Dragon the master of the Chicago Board of Trade, 
and at the receiving end of the greatest Crop Information Bureau 
of the world. 





DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


89 


Some time ago, a broker of some fifteen years’ experience, said: 
“Speculation as carried on now, is devilish business, and will be 
stopped by the Government in time, at most, a few years.” But he 
further said, “What can I do, that business is about all that I know, 
and I must care for my family.” (See Appendix II., No. 1). A 
former broker declares that the option business is “injurious and in¬ 
iquitous.” What better evidence can you have. 

Generally at this epoch, Dragon is securing his profits by smaller 
ranges of prices; and enormous deals of speculative holdings. War or 
famine gives an excuse for a wider range of prices, as in the present war. 

You may ask why, after all this knowledge was gained, I did 
not speculate and become wealthy. This is easily answered. For 
the special reason, if for no other: I never had the requisite capital. 
I very well know of the various pitfalls that beset one, requiring capital 
to bridge. One must be prepared for bear raids, washes, matched 
orders, stop loss orders, stop-hedging offsets, cross orders, kickbacks, 
shake-outs, trailer knockouts, over-night freeze-outs, snuffouts, the last 
one to five minute squeezes at the end of an option, which might be called 
the Devil-and-all-outs; and other surprises too numerous to mention. 
Any way you get out after your margins have been wiped out. This 
situation reminds me of a Scotch story, which space forbids my giving. 

I have been asked why, with all this information, I did not 
head a syndicate. I could probably make fortunes for those who had 
$100,000 to back deals. 

I probably could teach them to be a little more sane in their 
rabid speculation. But of what use would it be to them outside of 
proving that there is a system to the gambling at Chicago, and to 
beware of it. Would they stop after they had tasted a little of suc¬ 
cess? I think not. Aside from the moral aspect of being a partner 
with the robber; suppose I should, and make a few tens of thousands 
for them; in a short time they would feel that they could go it alone, 
and I am positive they would come to grief, and become unfitted for sane 
duties of life. They would not be able to stop. It really becomes a 
disease, and continuous gambling is sure to financially wreck them, 
if they do not become mental wrecks. 

In proof of my statement that they can not keep away, I give 
the following: A well-to-do bondholder in Iowa cleared up $2,000,- 
000 in cornering pork during the Franco-Prussian War. After this 
success, he traveled right back, and soon lost it all. The wife said 



90 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


that “all she ever got out of the Two Million, was a Hall Carpet.” 
You can credit Dragon with the remainder. 

A sign of moral improvement, well, well! is the following: A 
few brokers in New York City are refusing to do a margin business. 
Others may follow London in requiring settlements every fifteen days. 

It is the “Lure Of Easy Money.” But how low the wage 
and how hard to cash in; and how much sorrow engendered. 

Here is what Steele says of women gamblers; he calls them 
“female gamesters.” “Hollow eyes, haggard looks and pale com¬ 
plexions are the natural indications of the female gamsters. In short, 
I never knew a thorough paced female gamester to hold her beauty 
two minters together.” Ladies, beware! 




LAMBS SEEKING PASTURES FAIR AND GREEN (LONG GREEN) 

The Paths Trodden by the Innocent and Well-Nourished; the Uninformed and 
Unprepared; Oft Lead to Disillusion and Destruction 










































“The getting of treasures by a lying tongue, is vanity tossed to and 
fro of them that seel[ death.' —Prov. 21: 6. 

CHAPTER SEVEN 


Various Stories and Holdups 


By these stories, I will show you what Manipulators do to gain 
their ends, and sweep the tables of coin. A Manipulator robs a friend 
just as quickly as an enemy. And the grain and provision markets are 
now presided over by a person I call Dragon, who is a robber and 
swindler. 

I will now give you a few examples of downright hold-ups and 
sneak thievery in large figures, worked by the master manipulator. 
Dragon Senior. In 1 883 Peter McGoc came into the limelight. Mc- 
Goc, he of the “deaf ear and eagle eye’’, a doughty Scotchman hailing 
latterly from Milwaukee, a fruitful source of “bulls’’, “bears’’ and 
“beer”; after many successes and failures, was trying to run a corner in 
lard, in the eighties. McGoc was a “natural bull”, and thus could 
not see any other side. So Dragon Senior was “layin’ for ’im.” Peter 
had gone to about the end of his financial rope and came in to see 
Dragon, who was pretending to be his friend, all along the slippery 
path. Dragon said, “Well, Pete, how goes the lard deal”? “Oh, 
brawley, up to this point.” “What’s the matter?” “You see, ma 
freen’, I need mair gowd to carry oot ma scheme.” “Um, how much 
do you need, Peter”? “Oh, aboot a hundred and fifty thoosand, 
would do muckle weal,” said Peter. “Pete, I’ll loan you that, to show 
you that I am game.” So away goes Peter, “happy as a lark”, and 
bulls lard a little more. One hundred thousand is but a drop in the 
bucket in running lard deals. 

Meanwhile Pete’s friend (?) has ordered his brokers in the pit to 
sell Pete all the lard he wanted, but make him bid a little more for 
it, each time. Why? Well, you see several of the big packers of 
Chicago were following Pete, besides many speculators there and in 
other cities, and as long as the market kept gradually rising, they 
would hang on and increase their holdings, which meant more margins 
for Dragon to scoop when the fateful day arrived. The deal was 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


93 


assuming enormous proportions. Peter came to another halt, as his 
money was used up; and again came to said friend. “Well, Pete, how 
goes the battle now”? “Wall, I’m getting doon an oot for foonds.” 
“How much do you need”? “I ween, aboot two hundred and fifty 
thoosand believe cood win.” “All right, Pete, I’ll go you.” 

Pete was again made happy, and was the last real human 
happiness he ever experienced. W hen this last loan was about used 
up. Dragon thought the grist was about ready to shoot down the hoppers; 
and also that may be, some wise holders might consider it a proper 
time to take a neat profit. Before they could reconsider , Dragon, after 
stopping Peter’s bankers from loaning him more funds, ordered his 
henchmen to sell carefully, and then, later dumped whole blocks upon 
the market. 

The market was murdered to the tune of about $8 a tierce, and 
nearly faded from sight of man; and after he had stripped the “Bulls” 
all he dared to, for fear of more failures, he bought in large blocks 
of his shorts and again “saved the market.” You know, lard is very 
slippery stuff, and it is almost impossible to stand up, either on it or 
under it. Rather more so than riding on the revered and honoured “end 
seat on the water wagon.” Companies were wrecked, commission 
houses failed and the market demoralized. Poor Peter was “doon un 
oot”, and was roundly cursed by those who followed him. His chubby 
face was ne’er seen in “slippery places” much more; and he died a few 
years after, of a broken heart, another victim to the financial god Dragon. 
Dragon could well have given poor deceived Peter several hundred 
thousand, or a million, for helping the deal to such mammoth pro¬ 
portions. It is said that Peter had $6,000,000 to settle for, but I 
hardly believe it was quite that. Still a million won’t go far in such 
deals. 

I presume that Dragon told the bank presidents that $1,000,000 
would be of about as much use as he said of Cudahy, when Cudahy’s 
friends came to him and said that $400,000 would carry him over. 
Dragon said that it “would not be a drop in the bucket.” Quite so! 

This slippery occasion was the author s introduction to the broker s 
board. But it did not mean much to my untutored financial faculties. 
What a pity. Now I can see what ruin was worked. If Dragon would 
treat friends (?) that way, what would be meted out to enemies? 
I answer, the same treatment was accorded both, where there was a 
profit in sight. I refer you to Lawson. 



94 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Does this not prove that he was that kind of man that Rogers 
said Addicks was? "He would cut his best friend s throat with as 
much ease and satisfaction as he would his worst enemy s, if not 
with more.” 

This experience of Peter’s calls to mind the following. A dear 
good Scotch Laidy, one Sabbath morning, was feeling churchily in¬ 
clined, and donned her Sunday best, which included a new, immense 
ear trumpet, and promenaded to ‘‘Kirke.” The Beadle spied her 
at some distance, and as the reverent laidy came nearer and ascended 
the steps, fear for the dispellment of church sanctity and decorum, filled 
his heart. He feared that the innocent lady might be free in blowing 
her own horn.” The Beadle followed her up the aisle and into a 
vacant pew. As the devout woman arranged herself for a protracted 
stay, and was about to take her ear trumphet into her lap, the now 
thoroughly frightened Beadle pointed his finger at her, and yelled 
at the alarmed woman, ‘‘Woon toot and yoor oot.” 

Certainly, Peter McGoc after his last toot, was oot. When 
Dragon can fool connoisseurs so easily, what chance has a novice? 

To show that this fellow would stoop to anything to gain his 
end, I give the following: 

About the meanest trick Dragon Senior ever played, was that 
of using a Baptist preacher for a dummy Bellwether, Goat or Stool- 
pigeon. 

The Reverend Forlorn (as we will name him) called one day 
to solicit a subscription for his church. Dragon received him very 
graciously, and in his most suave manner (he could put this on when 
inclined) said, ‘‘Ah, my dear sir, how can I serve you?” Rev. 
F. broached the subject carefully, as to the needs of his pastorate, 
and ‘‘if he could see his way to favor the cause with a subscription, 
his parishioners would be so grateful.” Dragon’s eyes glistened, as a 
thought came to him, that here was a chance to make a good killing. 
The conversation continued thus: D. ‘‘My dear Reverend, I don’t 
believe I could give you a subscription. But, why don’t you invest 
in a few thousand barrels of pork”? Rev. F. ‘‘Oh, sir, I could not 
do anything like that. What would my parishioners say”? D. 
‘‘They needn’t know of it, and you might make several thousand dollars 
for your needs.” 

The kind hearted pastor was half persuaded, although he did not 
feel that it was just the right performance to carry out personally. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


95 


Dragon saw him wavering between the heaven born instinct and another 
of human suggestion; and said, “Don’t you think it would be a fine 
opportunity? I will give you the benefit of my experience.” 

After a vocal parley, back and forth, Dragon won him over by 
stating that he would loan him five thousand dollars, and Rev. F. 
was profuse in his thanks. As Dragon handed him the cheque he 
suggested a broker (one of his own, of course), for him to go to, how 
to gradually buy from day to day, and further said, “Now, Rev. 
Forlorn, there is only one promise that I shall require from you, and 
that is, that you will tell no one of your dealings.” “Oh, no sir, cer¬ 
tainly not. I will carefully observe this requirement.” Now see 
what happened. Rev. F. went to the broker named (who was 
expecting him), purchased a thousand barrels of pork (light and airy 
kind) and in a day or so purchased another thousand, having seen 
the market gradually advance; and his profits upon said wind mount¬ 
ing and doubling. It was not long before the whole of his $5,000 
was in “hock.” Now came the inevitable mental and spiritual battle, 
and as usual in such cases, the Devil won, and several of his good 
deacons carried their carefully hoarded ducats, to the deadly shrine 
of mammon. “Up, up she goes”, and soon trustees and other mem¬ 
bers are caught in the wily net, until there is about $100,000 put up 
as margins. One point the Reverend learned: that there was found 
plenty of money to speculate with, where there seemed to be none for 
church work. “Such is life in the far West.” 

At this point. Dragon’s art comes into play (he had been kept 
well informed of progress made) and he dangles pastor, deacon and 
layman in the air for a few days, until he carefully reasons that it is 
high time to “make a haul.” He lets them gently down a little, giving 
“spasmodic lifts”, in order to furnish a few fleeting moments of cheer 
and joy; and one fine morning the pastor and flock receive a severe 
shock. The “bottom had fallen out of the market”, and piggie had 
slid “clean out of thight, thir”; and the deceived and slaughtered 
gang, who couldn’t hear other squeals than their own, sneaked away 
from the quotation board, “sadder if not wiser” than their fellow 
beings. These “gulls” with tributory “hanger ons” paid tribute to 
Dragon, of about a half a million, which he considered at that time 
a good month’s work. 

It looks easy, don’t it. Let me tell you that it takes a few years 



96 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


of practice to be able to carry such a trick to success. Surely they 
thought that the “Devil was in the pot.” 

But I am not quite through with Pastor Forlorn. Passing over 

the thought of whatever treatment he might have received from the 

members of his flock, we will now come to the finis. 

One day, a demure bent form came to the outer office of Dragon, 

and a thin voice asked for an audience. As he, “who was none other 
than” Rev. Forlorn, came into the presence of his Satanic majesty, 
of the polished dome, said dome opened up; “Ah, whom have I the honor 
of addressing”? [same old suave game]. Rev. F. “I am the gentle¬ 
man who called upon you some time ago soliciting a subscription, 
and you advised me to buy pork.” D. “Why, so I do remember some¬ 
thing about that. And did you buy pork and make some money”? 
“Yes, sir, I did carry out your suggestions, and made money at first, 
but later the prices descended and I lost it all, and the $5,000 you 
loaned me.” D. “Oh, that was too bad, but don’t worry about the 
money, I shall never trouble you for it. Just forget it. It must have 
been a disappointment to you, but rest your soul as to being in any 
debt to me.” [Quite true.] 

Rec. F. “But I promised you I would not tell any one what I 
was doing.” D. “And you didn’t, did you”? Rev. F. “Yes, I 
did, and am very sorry [and I am sure he was]. D. “Sir, that being 
the case, I wish to have nothing further to do with you. There’s the 
door, sir; good day.” A portion of this story may seem pleasing 
to us; but I have no doubt that the Rev. was “able to control his 
merriment.” 

I will allow you to call this performance, in toto, by whatever 
name you please. No appellation will be too fierce. Dragon is not 
the only one who has played the same line of tricks, and this, mind 
you, was a mild one compared to some. There are days when the 
“killing” is ten millions. What a waste of time, money and valuable 
energy. Readers, you can stop this buccaneering if you really desire 
to have the license revoked, as to marginal trading, and short selling. 
If I can secure a nation-wide reading of this book, marginal trading 
will be a thing of the past. 

This tallies somewhat with “Deacon” Daniel Drew, his pastor 
and parish. But Daniel was more generous. This flock of gulls lost 
about $650,000. “Deacon” Drew made good the pastor’s loss 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


97 


and that of the pastor s wife, $40,000, but did not make good the losses 
of the flock. 

It was told me that Deacon Russell Sage played a similar dodge 
upon his pastor. Tut, tut! A go-to-meetin’-man doing such things? 
Why, how you talk! Russell gave him a “Tip”, and the dear soul 
must gabble to some of his flock. His flock lost several hundred 
thousand, and he was also mulcted to the tune of $5,000. Bemoan¬ 
ing his fate, he went to his friend and bright spark, Russell, and 
retailed how he had lost $5,000. Poor sympathetic Sage-brush was 
so sorry. I wouldn’t have had that happen for a farm down east.” 

Here, let me hand you a cheque for $15,000, and you say nothing 
to anyone.” It is quite easy to believe that this was the pastor’s 
share of the rake-off, although he undoubtedly was innocent of the part 
he played. From the business (?) standpoint, it was due him, and 
perhaps more. Let us be thankful that the “larger share” of the balance 
is now in generous hands, and are being given back to the people. 

It is said that Sage was never known to wear anything but an 
eight-dollar suit of clothes; and that he foreclosed a mortgage upon 
his own brother’s property because said brother could not pay his 
interest. 

Jay Gould, when interviewed by a reporter, in regard to some 
important deal: “People do not go hunting for ducks with a brass 
band.” 

Here is what Col. Dick Maple, he of the “Dollars and Devils”, 
wrote of John D. (even of his legitimate business) : 

“Look at John D. Rockefeller. Why, bless his little shriveled 
up soul, he has crushed the financial life out of enough of poor, indus¬ 
trious, hard-working men, to entitle him to a pit so low in the regions 
of despair, that it would keep him falling from now on until the earth 
was worn to the size of a small mustard seed.” 

Not very artistic, but straight from the shoulder. I say Dragon 
Junior, “Old Chappie”, what are people going to say of you and your 
illegitimate pilferings, when a certain fellow is through with you? 

Here is one of the many John W. Gates stories. An innocent 
but enterprising country lad came to New York City, to extend his 
sphere of activities, and having for some years read of Mr. Gates’ 
successes, immediately called upon him. After being duly ushered into 
Gates’ august presence, said: “Mr. Gates, I have come to New York 
to engage in an honest business , and have come to the Stock Exchange.” 





98 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


“My dear boy’’, answered Gates, “You have come to the right place 
to succeed, for you will have no competition. 

The fever of getting something-for-nothing, struck the son of a 
widow friend of mine, who remarked that her boy whom she sent 
to travel in Europe, sauntered into the gambling hell of Monte Carlo, 
and played for a few minutes and cropped $500. Upon arriving 
home he was wild for a roulette table, because he believed he could 
make a lot of money. Now how was he going to do this? By 
robbing his companions, how else could he? He did not stop to think 
and realize this fact. His mother wisely said, No you Don t, and 
that is the end of it.” He is now up in Alaska attending to legitimate 
business, thanks to sound sense and firmness of a loving mother. 

A story of the early days of the Board of Trade was reeled 
off to me by a friend of Dragon’s. Both M. (we will call him) and 
Dragon were buying and selling in the pork and lard pit. Pork had 
been going down, and M. had accumulated about all he dared to. 
Pork kept on declining and he began to be uneasy about holding on 
any longer. Dragon said, “Hold on, don’t be a quitter, the market 
will turn some time.” The market declined further and further, and 
M. finally gave up, and Dragon bought his wind options. And still 
the market declined until he noticed Dragon bidding more and more 
freely, while before this, he would bid under the market. 

Shorts began to be uneasy and the more careful “bought in” their 
lots. The more frightened the remaining shorts became, the higher 
the prices mounted. From the low point, pork went up six dollars a 
barrel. At this figure, one morning when hogs were noticeable by 
their scarcity, with the consequent elevation of nose and vulgar price; 
pork opened 50 cents higher and continued advancing. M. noticed 
that Dragon was selling for all he was worth; and he knew that he 
was simply closing out his “long trades.” A “delightful clean-up” was 
recorded. 

This personal trading Dragon was obliged to do, until he had 
trained a few henchmen to carry out his fleecing plans. I wish I 
could meet M. again, for I know he has scores of stories that he could 
relate for our edification. 

One day, while I was upon the Board floor, there was quite a 
“flurry” in wheat. The price had gone up four cents and was still 
advancing “steady by jerks.” There was a well nourished and groomed 
gentleman of about forty-five, sitting under the balcony where he could 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


99 


watch the wheat dial” wigwagging off the eighths, quarters and halves. 
Every time there was a spurt of a cent or more this fellow would wince, 
perspire and mop his cuticle, as a nervous baseball pitcher would when 
there were ‘‘three men on bases, and two out.” 

Ah, said I, you short seller, you have been picking up minnows 
and little fish galore the past few years; and now Dragon has you in 
his maw. How that man squirmed and suffered. I’ll warrant he hated 
to go to his beautiful home after board hours. I’ll warrant that he 
had a sleepless night, wondering whether he would own his home by 
to-morrow night. 

What of the wife and family? I do not need to persue this 
thought further. Why didn’t he get out of the market? The poor 
fellow was hypnotized. How could he take such an enormous loss. 
The usual method of these hypnots is to take a small profit and let 
the losses run. Of course, the post-graduate speculator would say 
“they should do just the opposite.” 

Wealthy men who were being wrecked by Dragon, would come on 
bended knees, asking him to let up. He would cold-bloodedly remark 
that the ‘‘times were not propitious.” And why, from his standpoint, 
should he let up? They would do him up if they could, wouldn’t 
they? It is ‘‘dog eat dog”! 

When Dragon Senior used to get into a tight place, he would 
have some bill passed by the Executive Board of the Board of Trade, 
which would relieve the tension, to the dumbfounding of his opponents. 

Here are a few of the hundreds of banks robbed by Presidents or 
Cashiers being seduced into speculation upon the Board of Trade. I 
have named the Fidelity Bank of Cincinnati, crash, caused by President 
Harper. In Iowa, there was Tom Ward, banker of Lamar, ruined. 
The Pella Bank Case, E. R. Cassett. President Cassett was arrested 
in I 896, sent to the pen for nine years. Brown of Griswold, a relative 
of the Governor of Iowa. Indicted and disappeared. Wolfram, a 
legislator. There were four cases against the Chicago Board of Trade, 
in Beard vs. Milmine. See Federal Reports of 1896 to 1902. And so 
we might go on. 



“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who 
can k n °w it." —Jer. 17:9. 

CHAPTER EIGHT 

And Yet More Tricks Played Upon the Lambs 


Bear says: “Ninety-nine cases out of one hundred are simply 
betting on ‘futures’, or ‘options’, or ‘forward sales’’’; and this, mind 
you, is carried on, at Chicago, in the name of “business.’ It is said 
that delivery is contemplated. At first, deliveries were made. That 
now is the farcial side. The losses are the real and serious side. 

The day of the Plunger may be past; but the greatest of all 
produce gamblers, will go on until the Government stops him. No 
combination outside of the Government can stop him. Mark these 
words which I utter, after having carefully followed his manipulations 
for thirty years. 

Lately, a Broker of wide experience, stated that 85 per cent, 
of money put up as margins, is lost. Another broker of enormous 
deals, said, in confidence, although such matters were secrets of the 
profession; that “out of the hundreds of thousands placed with him 
by confident ‘investors’, only 10 per cent. (10%) ever re-entered their 
pockets.” If that is not swindling, I do not know what swindling is. 
In answer to my question, if $5,000,000 were lost during some excit¬ 
ing day upon the Chicago Board of Trade, the first broker replied, 
that $10,000,000 would be nearer the truth. Think of this, friends, 
paying $10,000,000 for the privilege (?) of trading in wind. What 
can our Government say for itself, to allow this enormous loss while 
nothing substantial is given in return; but on the contrary, suffering and 
ruin. 

He also stated that in good speculative times, “an average of 
$100,000 to $200,000, depending upon conditions and stimulant in 
front, are yearly taken out of each Middle West and Western State.— 
Put it millions from Illinois and New York. 

Here are some of the many'thicks of daily or weekly occurrence. 
Bear in mind that the main idea of Dragon is to fool you, and he may 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


101 


play the same game for two or three days, and then ring in another 
change. At other times he will ring a change every day. Whatever 
he or his henchmen believe will fool you the easiest at that special 
time, will be worked. 

Take pork, for example, if he wants to run in a lot of shorts 
that are out (he knows at what figure they are short, and what States 
they are from) he gradually runs up the price, then one fine morning, 
he buys up all the hogs at the stock yards and at advanced prices, 
and perhaps opens wheat high for an additional scare, and the fright¬ 
ened shorts rush to cover, of course at a loss, and when he has run 
in most of them, he will ease the market. Following this, he will 
whiffle the market back and forth, until he gets in a parcel of longs, 
and gives them a run for their money, pursuing the opposite course as 
to the rise and fall of daily prices. 

Here is another. Suppose that by sending out a raft of enterpris¬ 
ing “dope”, he has influenced a lot of people to “go long” on pork, or he 
may be long and they have “caught on” that he is long. How will he 
shake them out and into his hands? Very easy. He will stay away 
from the hog market, and there being no call for piggy, down goes 
his price. There may be circulated a rumor that there is no “foreign 

demand”, or France or Germany are going to place an embargo, 

or there are tremendous “stocks on hand.” 

The hog price is held down so purchasers will sell their product 
to Dragon. You see the trick is, when you wish to buy pork, stay 
away from the hog market; and if you wish to sell, carry the price of 
hogs to a top notch. 

There are so many statements and actions of this nature that 
can be wired in all directions. Then he will force wheat down on 
“curb”, so as to have some influence from that quarter; and as a 
last crack at opening, his henchmen will sell a lot of short wind pork, 

so as to start the ball “a rolling”; and away she tumbles, one or two 

dollars. At this state of the game he buys back the short wind he has 
sold and takes all that is offered, and quickly rushes the price up if 
not out of sight, well beyond the price that any one desires to pay. 
Or, he may take all the pork offered at opening, perhaps thousands of 
barrels, if the longs have a fit or a fright, and throw over; and then 
let the market remain steady for a time. There are so many elements 
of varied nature that a manipulator can trump up. Unless you are a 
mind reader, you are at sea. Apparitions, which he throws upon the 



102 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


screen, get you nearly every time. Is there any protection against such 
a thief? Certainly there is. Keep away from him. Whether it is easy 
or not for you to keep away, depends upon your reasoning powers and 
force of character. 

The general run of traders do not seem to realize that Dragon 
can be long and short of the market at the same time. For example, 
he was short of December Wheat all the way down and at the de¬ 
cline was buying at the same time through other brokers. At the open¬ 
ing of December month he ordered his shorts settled up and increased 
his long side, and “up she rises’’ for 20 or more cents. Then he sold 
short blocks of “wind’’ to prevent the market from going much higher, 
and at the proper (?) time he will order these settled or perhaps let 
them run until the end of the month, when all deals for that month 
must be settled. What becomes of his long options? Well, the “big 
shorts’’ will be delighted to come around and have a heart-to-heart 
talk and private settlement with him; that is, if they agree to “pay the 
price’’ and have a good bank balance to assist them. 


Three Schedule of Tricks 


Here is a Schedule of Tricks, played for two weeks, during a 
quiet market, giving the general trend for each day, an irregular checker¬ 
board. Here is where the general trader gets mixed up and completely 
loses the trend (wide sweeps of values) of all the markets; and that 
is just what Dragon is after. 


Day— Wheat Corn Hogs 

Monday _Up Up Up 

Tuesday .Up Up Steady 

Wednesday -Down Steady Down 

Thursday -Up Up Down 

Friday -Down Up Steady 

Saturday . Down Up Steady 

Second Week 

Monday -Down Down Down 

Tuesday Down Up Down 

Wednesday -Up Up Down 

Thursday . Steady Down Up 

Friday -Up Up Up 

Saturday .Up Up Up 

Etc. 


Pork 

Down 

Up 

Down 

Down 

Down 

Steady 


Up 

Down 

Down 

Steady 

Up 

Steady 


Sometimes Dragon will allow the market to go as it naturally 
will; and all of a sudden, will quickly snap the traders like a whip. 















DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


103 


The market will be worked, or allowed to go untrammelled, in accord¬ 
ance with his idea of deceiving the public and incident collection 
of graft. 

The following chart, shows the workings during a stirring time in 
wheat for a week during the “war corner’’ of 1915. Wheat went to 
$1.67 and Pork to $20.02: 


Day— Wheat Hogs Pork 

Monday Up Down Up 

Tuesday _Up Up Up 

Wednesday Down Up Down 

Thursday Up Up Up 

Friday . Up Down Down Wheat $1.67 

Saturday Down Down Down Pork $20.08 


From this, wheat was smashed by Dragon to 89^ cents; pork 
to $13.02, and millions were extracted from thousands of the duped. 

The following is for the week when he finished pulling down 
pork for $7 a barrel, from $20.02 to $13.02: 


Day— Wheat Corn Hogs Pork 

Monday . Down Down Down Down 

Tuesday .. ...Up Up Up Up 

Wednesday Down Down Steady Down ($13.02) 

Thursday _ Down Down Down Up 

Friday - Up Up Up Up 

Saturday _ Up Down Up Down 


Now Mr. “Easy Mark’’, can you get the best of these speculative 
labyrinths? If you can, you can “pick a winner’’ in most any bunco 
game. 

I will not further pursue this roulette phase of the gamble (?). 
You can carry this on as long as you please. The pickerel have been 
caught, the bipeds milked and the lambs shorn, and the play is over 
for the week. Piggy has been slaughtered and sold for an hundred 
times, “all of him but his squeal’’, and that is still echoing “O’er the 
lea.’’ To-morrow comes “dull Sunday’’, for the unhappy stripped, 
or yet dangling, victims of cruel Dragon and his Juggernaut; and “the 
mourners go about the streets.’’ 

We will, however, follow these with one concrete example. 

Here is what Dragon accomplished on Monday and Tuesday, 
December 6 and 7, 1915: 

He had been quietly laying in a stock of long January Option pork, 
and saw a good chance to get packers and speculators to sell against him. 
















104 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Monday, the 6th, he worked it so that 80,000 hogs were shipped in to 
Chicago and thousands in to other places. Down went the price of 
porkers. Did he let pork down? Not but a fraction of a dollar, and 
bought all that was offered. He easily pulled wheat up to $1.20. 
Now the trap is set, and we will see what happened on Tuesday. Forty- 
five thousand more hogs for Chicago. Piggy thought still less of him¬ 
self on Tuesday than he did on Monday, although he was just as fat 
and full of squeal. 

Dragon smashes wheat four cents. With this deluge of depressing 
facts thrown in their eyes—packer, pork speculator and hedge seller 
rushed to sell what they had and what they hadn’t, and Dragon buys all 
that is offered (either kind, wind or real, don’t .matter to him, in pork and 
lard) and at the same time rushes the price up a dollar, so that only those 
that are forced to buy to save themselves will trail after him. The shorts 
who were trudging after were obliged to pay from one to three dollars 
a barrel more for wind which they had originally sold at a much lower 
price; which is, of course, a loss to them and a gain to the master manip¬ 
ulator. And there you are. 

You would play the same game yourself, wouldn’t you? That 
is, if you were a gambler and were running the deal, and had all the 
trump cards in your own hands. How easy. Dragon is simply repeat¬ 
ing history. Dragon Senior played this same old game 30 and 40 years 
ago. Some confidence game, eh? Works just as well now as it did 
then. Of course it will, you dupes. “Oh Lord, how long?” 

My dear pork speculator. If you had in stock thousands of bar¬ 
rels of mess pork, and probably several thousands of the wind kind, and 
you saw 60,000 to 80,000 “root hog or dies” sweeping into the stock 
yards, squealing “to beat the band,” and wheat marking the toboggan, 
you would sell out P. D. Q. or wire an S. O. S., wouldn’t you? Re¬ 
member Dragon would be disappointed if you didn’t; and, of course, 
you wouldn’t disappoint him for the world. No, of course, you wouldn’t. 
I’ll bet you wouldn’t, because your wobbly and agitated cerebellum 
would never allow you to be so wise. You poor fishes, how I pity you. 

The following is the paper dope as to causes, etc., that was pub¬ 
lished the morning of the 8th. “WHEAT RELAPSING FROM 
HIGH POINT. First Break in Upward Tendency Caused by Mill¬ 
ing Estimates. MARKET GROWS GROGGY. Prices Weak 
and Strong in Turn and Supply Only Bull Factor. No head lines for 
pork and lard, which was the main issue in the pits for that day. In the 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


105 


fine print we read: “Provisions were sharply affected by reports that 
Germany (deceived Germany, now the butt of nearly every one) was 
buying lard and pork. Big receipts of hogs were ignored (?) and the 
market ascended to about the highest prices yet this season.” 

And the fat is smeared over our (?) eyes. You see what a farce 
it is to one who knows the game. 

What was said on Saturday following: “Pork higher, traders 
paid no attention to the fact that hog receipts for the same period were 
the largest on record.” Dragon knew that big receipts would be the 
order of the day, and that it would be a good time in December to buy 
January Option and force them upon the shorts. 

What happened to wheat at the end of December? The last day 
the price of December Option went to $1.27J, and the belated shorts 
(whom the daily papers wrongly dubbed “belated longs”) settled, after 
which the price dipped that same day to about $ 1.20J at the close of 
the Board. Pork meanwhile was steady and on Monday, with the heavy 
receipts of 80,000 hogs, the public sold, expecting a decline, but 
Dragon said: “Not so, I will raise it up on them”; and he did. They 
rushed to cover and he sold to them. Now having plenty of “longs in 
the market,” on Tuesday he let prices off. This is called “milking the 
market.” 

Can not one gain anything? You might secure a “scalp” once in 
a while, but being prone to “let your losses run,” you would soon be 
“wiped out.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he 
fall.” 

Old Dragon Senior was a rough old cur. It used to be the game 
to rush the market up or down, until several failures occurred; then a 
cessation would be ordered, so that firms could adjust their accounts 
and settle partially or fully. Following this, the campaign for boodle 
would begin again. The deals are now carried on more smoothly, and 
the money taken from the people with less incidents of failures. 

These excerpts, from thousands, are enough to show one phase of 
the workings of the hypnot factory, known as the Board of Trade. 
Hypnots, do you recognize these cellular effusions from the prolific 
gray matter of our versatile Dragon? I do not seem to hear a “Hip, 
hip, hoorah” from you. 

Now while senior manipulator was pilfering millions upon the one 
hand, was he using any of these to better the condition of those who 
slaved for him for pittances? It seems not. Hear what Prof. Kennedy 



106 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


of the Chicago University, formerly of Cornell, a practical sociologist, 
says of him: “The low wages, granted by this manipulator, carry in 
their train insanitary housing conditions, child labor and high mortality 
rate. Of the deaths in the stock yards district, he said 30 per cent were 
due to tuberculosis. The expenses of the average unskilled worker’s 
family, he asserted, were shown by investigation to run $200 a year 
beyond absolute requirements. Thus children and wives were sent out 
to make up the deficit, or boarders taken in to further befoul the air of 
already crowded cottages.” Mr. Kennedy declared, “The committee 
refused to publish these facts.” In this Mr. Kennedy “thought they 
erred .” [How mild!] 

Look upon this and then upon the delightful “Pullman Tenements,” 
a little way out of Chicago. In Pullman we had a man and not a 
boodling buccaneer. I understand that, forced by public opinion,* this 
boodler’s son has improved conditions. Here is an immense fortune 
built up from piratical robbings: and should it not go back to the people? 

Did the Chicago Board of Trade subscribe to the elevating ideas 
put forth for the betterment of mankind by the Christian Endeavorers at 
their last meeting at Chicago? Not so. They even tore down the 
decorations which had been erected in their honor. 

We do not need the gambling section of this institution, nor the 
branch offices in our midst. Most of the work is gambling, impure and 
complex. I’ll warrant that the option or marginal trading, as far as 
Chicago is concerned, in many branch offices is 1 00 per cent to no per 
cent of passing the commodity. And as far as their relation to Chicago 
is concerned, they are Branch Bucket Shops, for I hold that the Chicago 
Board of Trade is now run by one person. And if it was not, the mem¬ 
bers accomplish collectively, what the bucket shop does singly. 

Leave aside all arguments as to this phase; the point we as citizens 
of the United States wish to know, is this: Are we treated fairly and 
squarely in this so-called “business”? 

Considering the fact that we secure no profit, and considering the 
fact that we are robbed of 85 per cent of the funds sent on 
to Chicago as backing for our misguided opinions, you will agree 
that it is a mighty poor business proposition. And further, I ask you 
fairly and squarely, if there can be a worse one foisted upon us? 
Should we not banish it from our midst at the earliest opportunity? A 
suitable bill should be prepared for Congress to consider at an early 
date. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


107 


We are making a hue and cry of promiscuous gambling in our 
midst, and hauling scores of victims up to the docket. Are these re¬ 
spectable “sub-hoppers” of Dragon’s throughout the States disturbed in 
their genteel occupation of seducing our hypnots? Not on your tintype. 

We should not allow Marginal Trading in our country. We are 
simply sending money to Chicago to be grabbed by Dragon, and to feed 
these roistering renegades. 

Before closing this chapter, I am going to refer to the migrations 
of a star in another constellation of this wind and water firmament, which 
should have been noted in Chapter VII. 

Many of my readers will remember the artful Cassie Chadwick, 
who, among other trump cards, played Andrew Carnegie as her trustee, 
godfather and even father; “the most colossal female swindler in the 
annals of crime in the U. S.” A criminal with excess of aliases and de¬ 
ceits, from Bigley to Mme. DeVere and other French names, through 
Layliss, Hoover and a host of other names, until she settled upon Chad¬ 
wick, poor fellow; playing the hypnotic role with comet brilliancy. It 
took a Boston Yankee to ferret her out. 

She had a penchant for diamonds, pearls and grand pianofortes; 
buying eight of the latter on one order. Her chiefest joy was in deceiv¬ 
ing the heavy weights of the financial arena, especially bank presidents 
[aping Dragon Senior] and she succeeded admirably. So much for 
Cassie. Peace to her ashes, now inclosed in a portion of the Canadian 
home plot, seven by three. 

Mr. Carnegie, with a merry twinkle, said that “Mrs. Chadwick had 
demonstrated one thing. His own credit must be good, when his name 
signed to a paper, even by somebody else, could conjure a million and a 
half out of bank vaults.” 

Now the bipeds I am exposing, are, and have been for forty years, 
engaging in this arena both heavy and light weights; working the same 
sort of slick game; with this difference. He and his dad have done their 
work a little smoother and saved the boodle to back their swindles; while 
Cassie spent her capital injudiciously, and incidentally came to grief in 
prison, where our Government should incarcerate the present Dragon. 



ONE OF DRAGON’S SUB HOPPERS 

Thou Hast aided Dragon in the Financial Slaughter of Hundreds of Thousands 



SEATTLE HYl’NOT BOARDS 



HOW THE STATE OF WASHINGTON HAS SFFFERED AT THY HANDS 





















Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits ivhether they are of 
Cod; because many false prophets are gone out into the rvorld ."— 
1st John 4: 1. 

The la jv of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony 
of the Lord is sure, making the lvise simple .”—Ps. 19: 7. 


CHAPTER NINE 


Remedies Proposed by the Author 


Some have asked what should be done? There are ways to get at 
the Dragon; some being very costly. One way would be, the educa¬ 
tional system, as adopted for the stamping out of the saloon. Lecturers 
sent throughout our land would be helpful, showing how impossible it 
is to make money at this game. 

My readers, when you legislate an act that no person shall sell for 
future delivery what he does not own, nor has any immediate prospect of 
owning, and make it a felony if, under these conditions, one does sell 
short; the Spider Webs, so craftily woven at Chicago and New York, 
will be blown to the far corners of the Earth. 

How foolish it is to waste time and money in order to add millions 
to one person’s pockets already bulging with filched lucre. He does not 
need it; and we do need this money in our homes to bring cheer, joy, 
progress in every line. 

To secure proper evidence would require traders upon the Board, 
secret service men, and would cost many hundred thousands perhaps; 
but think of the millions saved to our people. I know how it can be 
done, but I doubt if the Government will assist. 

Every million dollars placed in this man’s pocket, means so much 
more hardship and slaving by our working people; so much less for our 
family running expenses. 

Most any speculator, trader or broker, if he will be honest with 
you, will say that I am right in warning you against this Juggernaut 
and Dragon. 

My dear fellows, you of Boston, St. Louis, Galveston, San Fran¬ 
cisco, Seattle, or any other city of the United States, or of the world, 




110 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


why do you send good money to Chicago? Can t you lose money 
enough at home, where it might at least do your city some good? Why 
give it to a Juggernaut and receive nothing in return? “What’s the 
idea’’ ? 

Year after year have I witnessed these depredations, powerless to 
warn the people. As a last resort, I appealed twice to the President, 
early in 1915. I wrote two letters to President Wilson, which I will 
not take time to read to you at this point, giving him in a condensed 
form my views, and showing how this manipulator could be reached. 
His secretary wrote that he would present the matter at the earliest oppor¬ 
tunity to the President. I now doubt that he ever received the letters. 
If he did, I suppose he preferred to send his secret service men out after 
more counterfeiters (which, of course, must be done) who were making 
a few bogus dollars, rather than send some one to get evidence about 
this multi-millionaire robber who thinks it good picking to “rake in’’ from 
ten to twenty-five millions per year out of gambling in wheat, corn, oats, 
pork, lard and ribs. 

If with $5,000 on paper, and wig-wagging the market in a little 
over one year, I could show a credit of about one million and a half by 
following Dragon; what can Dragon do, backed by $500,000,000, 
milking the market just as he pleases and no combination strong enough 
to prevent him? Even our Government is a weak and impotent equation. 

I presume that this master robber will continue his piracy for some 
years yet. It is a long road that has no turning. I also wrote to a 
leader in Progressive Economics Society, which met at the Panama 
Fair, but received no reply. I wrote again. He answered that he had 
nothing to communicate. He added that he “Hoped that I was waging 
a sane and constructive campaign for better social justice.’’ How 
lovely! 

Dragon is so well intrenched that no one desires to tackle him. Of 
course, the quickest way to stop his piling up ill-gotten gains, is for the 
public to quit trading in options. That is the prime object of this book. 
Success attained, then would the fangs of this Dragon be drawn. You 
know how difficult it is for some men and women to stop betting on horse 
races, poker and bridge whist, after acquiring the habit, and for men to 
quit entering the saloon and other questionable places. It will be more 
difficult to stop gambling in the prices of our food products, as it seems 
to be quite the proper caper for his lordship, unless the Government steps 
in and roots it out. If this money was distributed equably among our 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


111 


people, it would be less damnable, but it is not. The most of it goes 
into the hands of one man, and millions of it carted off to Europe. Thus 
is the prospect of the old game of master and slave being brought us: a 
game we are trying to abolish. 

On this late rise in wheat, from 88 J cents to $1.67, although he 
lost at the beginning, he has made many millions beyond his losses. He 
will probably clean up from fifteen to twenty millions at the close of the 
May, July, September and December deals; and from forty to fifty 
before the close of the European war. 

How about the income tax and other taxes he has kept from the 
Government? I wonder where the inheritance tax alighted? 

In the letter to the President I spoke of the May Wheat Deal, and 
it was carried out as I prophesied; also the July, September and De¬ 
cember Options. When July and September came, and farmers had 
their wheat ready for the market, the price was from 30 to 40 cents 
lower. 

Judging from my past experience, I have these deals mapped out 
for the next six or eight months, and believe that I know the trend of 
the market, as it will be forced by this fellow. 

Why after all these years, have they not ferreted out this fellow’s 
game? Because of the ever-changing herds of innocent lambs. The 
brokers will not expose him. His continuance means their material 
support. 

Thousands of our young men do not know that it is gambling, 
because it is carried on under the cloak of “Business.” 

Boys who have been left considerable property are drawn in. 
They are the easiest gulls to manipulate. 

What does the Dragon care for the farmer whom he induces, by 
crafty bulletins circulated throughout the States, with other subtle 
manipulations, to sell his wheat, corn, oats and hogs at the wrong times, 
and at poor prices. He is in it for the boodle, and as long as the Gov¬ 
ernment allows him and his associates to rob the people, he will continue. 
The habit has become chronic for many, many years. As to the eco¬ 
nomic side of this speculative drama, it certainly is dark and full of 
devastating terror for the lambs who are yet to be shorn. 

The citizen who enters these portals is sheared singly, and that not 
being enough to satisfy his kingship, all of us are sheared collectively. 

Why pay a double tribute to him from whom we receive nothing in 



112 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


return. Our bleatings should ascend straight to the halls of our great 
and glorious Government.” 

Why did the Anti-Option Bills of Butterworth, Hatch and Wash¬ 
burn fail in the Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses? 
The leading bankers, merchants and manufacturers opposed them, which 
more than offset the popular support. 

It seems strange that a government that we believe is the nearest 
perfect of any, should license such a stupendous evil, cloaked under the 
title of business. The older I grew, the more I desired to uncover this 
evil and to protect our people, if they will allow me to protect them, and 
to urge the repeal of such an abominable license. 

The outcome of this form of gambling, where one gains and the 
other necessarily loses, although garbed under the deceitful cloak of 
business, is a curse to both parties thereto, and a curse to our country. 

Is it not deplorable for one to be allowed to deceive and rob us? 
As Bryan says: ‘‘So popular has it become for a few to act for a large 
number that we see some men collecting enormous sums from them. 
How much can a man rightfully collect from society”? He certainly 
is not entitled to collect from us hundreds of millions, giving wind in 
return. 

A few citizens should not be allowed to harm society. Neither 
should one person be allowed to destroy thousands- of homes for his 
own selfish interests and additions to his fortunes. It is asked: ‘‘Why 
will they play with him”? I also ask: Why will people drink and 
patronize the saloon, when 2,000 a day are murdered in this way? It 
is the appetite (inherited and natural) for drink. It is the appetite for 
gambling. A disease, you may call it. Take away the means of grati¬ 
fying those appetites (change the thought) and the appetite gradually 
disappears. 

Take the Liquor Traffic. Capital, $1,000,000,000. A business 
of $2,500,000,000. Two thousand bodies a day are destroyed by 
drink, drawn from 5,000,000 drunkards, recruited from 20,000,000 
moderate drinkers. And these, think of it, recruited from our boys. 
Eight billion dollars loss of efficiency. No wonder we want to get rid 
of the saloon. If we could eliminate the Saloon, Dope, White Slavery, 
and Food Product Gambling, what a happy country ours would be. 

And when our people are as well informed upon Speculative 
Gambling, it will be a wonder if they don’t demand a repeal of this 
evil. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


113 


Yesterday, Dragon smashed the market 9c and to-day 14c more, 
why? Either to shake out the “tailers” which the bunk talk of “em¬ 
bargo,” then “submarine,” etc., gave him an excuse to carry out before 
our people; or, he was afraid that the boycott might lead to a rigid 
investigation of him and his servant, the Chicago Board of Trade. Four 
sets of margins were swept into his hoppers and several hundred thou¬ 
sands the “cleanup.” He had been gradually preparing for this for 
seevral days. Watch him for the next eight months as he will shake 
many millions out of our hypnots. 

Here is a gross error that is carried on with malice and forethought, 
especially designed to swindle first the producer and then the consumer; 
and these swindles are deliberately and supinely licensd by our own 
Government. 

When our Senators and Representatives can sit in the cushioned 
chairs of the halls of Congress, as god-fathers of these enormous swindles, 
without batting an eye, there must be something “rotten in Denmark.’ 



WHERE WE SHOULD EXPECT RELIEF 



O 

Q 


UNITED STATES CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON 








A FEW VICTIMS (CELEBRATED AND OTHERWISE) 
OF RABID SPECULATION 



Busted and Blighted 
Yet 

Reminiscent. 


His Last Wheat Deal “Blown 
Out”. 

His Last Good Dollar Gone; 

So Wends Our Dragon Hypnot 
Boob, 

A Sadder Wiser (?) One. 


Dreaming of 
Greatness of Past 
Years in Pit’yful 
Environment 










"Ever}) latv of Cod has behind it infinite pouter to enforce it, Tvhile 
the so-called laxo of sin, and death has no foundation, has nothing back 
of it that it can depend upon ”—Adam H. Dickey. 


CHAPTER TEN 


Legal Citations and Conclusions 

Having been fortunate enough to have found in court records a 
fearful expose of the methods and systems of the Chicago Board of 
Trade, we here present very limited portions of what Attorney Charles 
D. Fullen (formerly United States Attorney in Iowa), has to say in his 
admirable and extensive “Brief and Argument’’ No. 1032 before 
U. S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, and U. S. Supreme Court in 
1904. You doubting Thomases, read this carefully, and later read 
the entire volume. After the various moral (?) crusades, quotations 
were thrown wide open to the public. He says: 

“It cannot help but be known that unless its quotations are dis¬ 
tributed broadcast, there will be such little excitement and interest, 
that the gambling mania of our people will not be aroused and there 
will be a consequent diminution in the volume of business which would 
come to the members of the Board of Trade. Bucket Shop and 
outside dealers were not thought of greed and immorality 

reigns supreme upon the Chicago Board of Trade,—greed, because 
its quotations were distributed so that the unsuspecting speculator might 
receive them,—-immorality, because the despised and immoral bucket 
shop was not disbarred from receiving them.These quo¬ 

tations permeated the entire moral atmosphere of the country, and the 
poison was absorbed by our inhabitants as easily and as readily as 
they breathed the atmosphere which surrounded them.” 

“This condition continued for eight years, until the Board of 
Trade tried to knock out the bucket shops in 1900, although every 
one else could have these quotations . . . 5th. That the effect 

of the pretended transactions had the members of the Board of Trade 
with each other, results in the impossibility of ninety or ninety-five per 
cent, of said transactions culminating in deliveries, and do result in 
a settlement upon differences of said ninety to ninety-five per cent, 
of said transactions, thus making the quotations of said transactions 
such that the same are not recognized by law as valid contracts.” 

In laying bare the trading machinery, he says: 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


117 


6th. . If scalpers who never receive nor deliver any 

commodity but always settle upon differences,—of members who are 
squeezed by corners of a manipulated market which creates no less 
number of quotations. ... so great was the halo around the 
Chicago Board of Trade that it seems no one was courageous enough 
to say that the Board of Trade was in itself a huge gambling concern. 

Possibly at that time the eyes of the public had not been opened 
to the enormity of the gambling machine which it had created and 
was supporting, and it was only as the years passed by and the increase 
in the number of embezzlers and suicides, awakened public sentiment 
to such an extent, that the methods of the Chicago Board of Trade 
could with any degree of safety be exposed in the courts.” 

“So general is the information that it would appear that it is almost 
a matter of which the court will take judicial notice that the Chicago 
Board of Trade is a veritable den of iniquity, so far as it panders 
to and advances the gambling mania of the people.” . . .“Dis¬ 

tance does not always lend enchantment to the view for sometimes it 
is possible for those who are not under the shadow of the dome of the 
Board of Trade to 'see its real effect upon mankind and the country 
generally, than those who are so close that their eyes are dazzled 
by the liberality and good fellowship which at close range enhance 
and secrete the actual results of its operations and manipulations.” 

“This Board’s claim consists in saying that although thousands 
of non-members may walk up to the walls surrounding its den, and place 
their wagers in the shape of margins in the tills of the Board of Trade 
members, yet that wall, through its rules, is so impervious to the possi¬ 
bility of gambling intentions percolating through, that the transactions,— 
the result of that which comes from the non-members,—become, when 
made by the members among themselves, as pure as the driven snow. 
That is the theory of the Board of Trade. 

“The dividing line between the members and non-members is so 
perfect that no taint or tincture of gambling can possibly reach its pits, 
because its members deal among themselves according to the rules 
of the Chicago Board of Trade. And these rules are such that the 
members of the Board of Trade can ring out their even trades, and 
hold the margins of their unsuspecting customers without any liability 
then existing between the members upon the contracts of the customers 
which they have made in the pits. 

. . Sidney date. Witness recited: “On January 11, 

1902, customers had deposits with our firm (Lamson Brothers) 
$258,962 on purchases, and on sales $195,687, making $454,649 
of money in their hands as margins on trades, which, as between 
Lamson Brothers and other members of the Board, had been settled 
either by the direct or ring method of settlement. On January 1 3, 
L. B. had $354,092 of margins deposited by their customers on pur¬ 
chases, and $250,155 on sales of their customers, making $604,247 
of their customers’ funds which they had as margins on trades which 



118 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


had been settled on that date as between L. B. and other members, 
by either direct or ring method.” 

After testimony of Mr. Cornelius, Mr. Fullen 
adds: ‘From what can be discovered from the anxiety of these mem¬ 
bers dealing among themselves to settle their trades, it is not a very 
great stretch of the imagination to conclude that when these settlement 
clerks gather in the settlement room, the noise incident thereto does not 
differ greatly from the pandimonium which rages in the pits during 
trading hours. These members, although trading, as counsel for the 
Board of Trade would have you believe, with intent and purpose of 
delivery, seem very anxious to ring out and settle their trades, and 
as many as possible, for the very purpose of avoiding delivery. . . . 

‘‘Mr. Finley Barrell, also a cash grain man, so-called, testifies, that 
there can be no delivery when trades are settled.” . . . ‘‘Other 

testimony could be pointed out in the record showing that delivery 
does not result from the transactions in the pits.” . . . “There¬ 

fore, it can not be said that the trading among the members are actually 
or bona fide purchases or sales.” . . . “The speculator, when 

he buys or sells in May, a commodity for December delivery, does 
not expect to let that contract alone until December, but he expects 
to close out that contract at any time intervening between the date he 
made the pretended purchase or sale , and the time fixed for delivery. 
Can any person say that such transactions in the pits embrace an abso¬ 
lute intention upon the part of the contractors to deliver or to receive 
the commodity when the month in which delivery can be enforced 
arrives”? 

This illustrates the fact which we w r ant to present 
to the court, that there is no limit which can be placed upon the trading 
in the pits of the Board of Trade, that it is all wind trading and the 
volume of the trading is not dependent upon any condition of the finan¬ 
cial market or upon the quantity of the produce in the country. The 
system of the Chicago Board of Trade allows the members to stand 
in the pits and buy and sell back and forth indiscriminately at any 
and all prices, knowing that when the market closes for that day, if 
the volume of trading has been very great, that they will be enabled 
that afternoon to settle a great proportion of the trades by the direct 
method, and those that are left may be settled by the ring method next 
morning. Do the brokers have to be careful in making trades in the pit 
if they know that they can create thousands of trades which can be 
rung out next day? No wonder that so much noise is made in the 
pits when the trading is only limited by the recklessness of the broker, 
who knows the ring settlements will soon follow.” 

Here are some of the usual daily tradings of a few firms, some 
years ago. Double and treble the amounts, for the present date. 
Harris Gates & Co., 6,000,000 bushels. Logan & Bryan, 4,000,000 
bushels of corn. Ware & Leland, Four or Five Millions some days. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 119 


Finley Barrell, some days, 8,000,000 bushels, but average 2,000,000. 
The brief continues: 

Taking these enormous quantities, can this court 
be made to believe that these parties have the present intention of making 
or receiving a delivery upon these contracts at the time fixed for the 
delivery of the commodity? No, the settlement methods step in and 
enable these parties to settle these contracts within twenty-four hours 
after making the same, by payment of differences.” . . . Again, 

‘‘To properly judge of the aggregate volume of business which is done 
by these few firms, the court can examine the estimate in exceptions 
of defendants to Master’s report found on page 137. These six 
firms deal in 1 7,500,000 bushels per day, 450,000,000 bushels per 
month, and 5,520,000,000 bushels per annum. Can it be possible 
that they intend delivery upon these contracts”? 

Another fact to be considered in judging whether the 
members intend delivery of the commodities which they deal in the 
pits, is the financial ability of the members to receive and pay for the 
commodities which they pretend to buy and sell. How long could 
Ware & Leland continue to do business by trading with other brokers 
and pay twelve thousand dollars a month for private wires (Rec. 515), 
employ ten or twelve telegraph operators in their Chicago office (Rec. 
515) and pay salaries of seventy or eighty employes (Rec. 552)? 
What could be the object of these dealers dealing among themselves 
if there was no foul, polluted stream coming up from the country which 
was purified when it came in contact with the cold pure current coming 
from the complainant’s pits”? 

Dunkley avers that ‘‘between Forty and Fifty Million Bushels 
of (wind) wheat are dealt in per day.” The reader may continue 
computation, I am tired. How many decades would it take to “stand 
and deliver”? Why not take a big roll of paper and hire some one 
to chalk in figures; and next morning hang the roll in front of your 
customers, and as the paper is unrolled, let them guess whether the 
next figure will be higher or lower. That would save a lot of clerical 
hire, and this method would be so direct, that the “Ring Method” 
would not be necessary. This method was carried on in Los Angeles 
quite successfully, that is, until stopped by the police. 

We can easily see that various brokerage firms traded from 
300,000 to 6,000,000 bushels per day. Some days, 8,000,000 to 
10,000,000 per day, mostly wind grain. The Clearing House makes 
this very easy. Some firms may have $ 1 0,000,000 in margins in their 
vaults and need put up at the Clearing House only $10,000. That 
is doing business upon other people’s money with a vengeance. Mr. 



120 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Foster, of Edwards & Co., settled 67 wheat trades, value of about 
$300,000. by payment of $1,100. 

The Board of Trade people do not like to admit that there are 
such bipeds as “scalpers”, and yet they are there m the pits, and they, 
according to Dunkley, “create quotations just the same as do all other 
classes of traders.” 

Champlin stated that he “had not received any grain for several 
years on contracts made in the pits.” Judge Anderson who tried the 
case in Indiana, also adds: 

they make contracts for future delivery and, im¬ 
mediately, with uniformity of practice almost complete, settle these 
contracts upon differences, and they do this continuously, day after 
day, month after month, and year after year.” 

Mr. Fullen is quite facetious when he says: “If A instructs 
a broker to buy him a horse and agrees to pay him a commission 
of five dollars, then it would appear that A intended to buy a horse, 
but if A makes an arrangement with a brother to pay him five dollars 
to buy a horse and to sell a horse, so that A would not be compelled 
to receive and feed the horse, that excludes any idea of delivery on 
the part of A, and indicates that A simply intended ot pay the broker 
five dollars for placing a bet upon what might be the difference between 
the purchase and selling price of the horse. The charging of five 
dollars for the ‘round turn’ in advance of the transaction being initiated, 
stamps the transaction as purely a gambling one.” 

Summing up one point he says, “If this court can support the 
complainant’s contention, then it must believe, as Mr. Warren, at that 
time President of the Chicago Board of Trade, does; that what is 
gambling in a bucket shop is legitimate on the Board of Trade.” 
Another broker says, “It becomes speculation on the Board of Trade 
where it is gambling in the bucket shop.” Paul stated, “. . . in 

the millions of bushels dealt in by Mr. Yerkes there was never but 
one delivery of twenty thousand bushels.” 

The Board of Trade “recognizes no principals, no customers.” 
The brokers acknowledge that you come to them with a gambling 
intent. Read what Robbins, a regular, has to say: 

“You come here with a gambling intent; you have carried it out 
as far as you are concerned, and you have gone off and left me. You 
have induced me to put myself as principal on the Board of Trade to 
two contracts. I have allowed myself to be used for you,” etc. 

Read this from Irwin vs. Williar (110 U. S. 499): “It makes 
no difference that a bet or wager is made to assume the form of a 
contract, gambling is none the less such because it is carried on in 
the form or guise of legitimate trade.” 

Again the brief states,—“This Board of Trade is permitting a 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


121 


business to be conducted in its exchange hall which is in violation of the 
statute law of Illinois. . . The Board of Trade is permitting 

to be conducted on its exchange hall a business which is at common law 
illegal”—and in seeking to put the bucket shops out of business,—‘‘seeks 
to secure to itself by means of litigation, additional revenues and business 
from an illegal source.” . . . ‘‘The quotations are sent out as 

being the assembled and aggregated collection of prices of commodities 
actually dealt in upon the floor of its exchange hall; when, and in fact, 
they are simply a record of the illegal and gambling transactions had 
between its members, made up of hedging, scalping and all other kind of 
deals such as are made in the pits. The public is misled by these quota¬ 
tions, and they are put forth under false pretenses.” 

I will not go into the manipulations of a dominant house, nor the 
work of the ‘‘Open Board of Trade”, (some 400 or 500) working 
upon the same plan as the bucket shops, yet allowed to go on unmolested 
by the Board of Trade, and quotations furnished. I am not protecting 
bucket shops, I simply wish to prove that the Chicago Board of Trade 
is an enormous bucket shop, and cite the above and following as evi¬ 
dence. The bucket shops are the ‘‘offspring of the Chicago Board of 
Trade”, and this Board calls them Illegitimate Children or Bastards. 
In other words, will not own their own ‘‘young bloods.” 

Also, my reader, I would like to ask you where you would get 
off, in case of court action by you to have embezzled margins returned 
to you? Read: 

‘‘The Argument before Judge Anderson, of the Circuit Court, 
was taken down in shorthand, and counsel now beg leave to make 
as a part of this argument the colloquy which took place between 
the court and Mr. Robbins, as the same illustrates emphatically and 
clearly the propositions now presented to this court. 

‘‘The Court: If I send a broker onto the Board of Trade to 
sell for me, he acts as my agent, don’t he? 

‘‘Mr. Robbins: Yes, as between you and him, undoubtedly. 

‘The Court: Well, what rule can possibly change his con¬ 

nection ? 

‘‘Mr. Robbins: Well, the trade upon the Board is governed by 
those rules. 

‘‘The Court: I know, but those rules cannot change the actual 
relations between me and that man. 

‘‘Mr. Robbins: They determine the relations between the two 
members. 

‘‘The Court: If a broker acts for me in selling and another 
broker acts for somebody else in buying, what difference does it make 
what is in the minds of those brokers? Isn’t that transaction to be 
determined by what is in my mind and the purchaser’s mind? 



122 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


“Mr. Robbins: I think not, for this reason: the transactions 
under the rules of the Board of Trade are transactions to which you 
are unknown, you are a stranger. 

“The Court: Well, it is either their transaction or it is mine, 
one or the other. 

“Mr. Robinson: It is their transaction, although they have 
allowed themselves to be used, and their power, for you to speculate 
[gamble] with. You could not go into court and enforce that con¬ 
tract. 

“The Court: I could not? 

“Mr. Robbins: I think not. 

“The Court: If I employ a broker to sell, and he sells to a 
broker, and the other man has accepted employment from another 
man to buy, would that make a contract between me and the other man, 
if the transaction is illegal? 

“Mr. Robbins: Under the rules of the Board of Trade all the 
courts have held that the rules become part of the transaction. And 
the two principals, as respects the Board of Trade— 

“The Court: Well, is there any contract? 

“Mr. Robbins: What? 

“The Court: Is there any contract? 

“Mr. Robbins: Between the two members? 

“The Court: Yes. 

“Mr. Robbins: Why, certainly. 

“The Court: Is there any contract between the two principals? 

“Mr. Robbins: The contracts are between the two members 
of the Board of Trade. They recognize no principals, no customers.” 

Now, reader, “if they recognize no principals , no customers ,” 
where are the hypnots, in these transactions, anyway? It would take 
a mountain of explanation to convince some of us. This certainly is 
rich. So is the continuation of this same colloquy. 

In previous pages you have noted the enormous expenses besides 
the personal robbings of Dragon; who pays for this? The human 
fishes, commonly dubbed, “suckers.” If they did not “pay the piper”, 
how could this mammoth American Monte Carlo survive? Dragon 
wouldn’t put up. No, no, you may be sure that he wouldn’t. He 
expects you to pay these expenses besides paying tribute to him. Who 
pays the salaries of 300 or more brokers in the pit and 150 telegraph 
operators on the floor? The above named fishes. No one else will. 
What do you “poor fishes” receive for furnishing this “service ex¬ 
pense”? Wind and Ruin. Is that a good business proposition? Bart¬ 
lett, Frazier & Co. had 4,000 miles of private wires. Who pays for 
the thousands of clerks in the various commission houses? See above. 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


123 


R. M. Des Jardins says: “If we gave publicly the names of our 
customers we would lose their business.’’ This business is of such 
questionable character that no respectable business man wants to be 
known as an habitue of the broker’s office, and much less be seen in a 
bucket shop. 

To prove that it is not one set of men that gamble upon the 
Board, but the disease infests all classes of society, I give what a 
member of the firm of Lamson Bros. & Co. disclosed. 

“Our customers are scattered over the country and are engaged 
in various business, lawyers, doctors, general stores, postmasters, and 
so on.“ 

I will close these legal citations with the following from the opinion 
of Judge Mulky, in Cothran vs. Ellis, 125 Ill. 496: 

But leaving both sections of the status cited entirely 
out of view, we are clearly of the opinion that dealing in futures or 
options, as they are commonly called, to be settled according to the 
fluctuations of the market, is void by the common law; for, among other 
reasons, it is contrary to public policy. It is not only contrary to public 
policy, but it is a crime— a crime against the state , a crime against 
the general welfare and happiness of the people , a crime against religion 
and morality ;, and a crime against all legitimate trade and business. 
This species of gambling has become emphatically and preeminently the 
national sin. In its proportions and extent, it is immeasurable. In its 
pernicious and ruinous consequences, it is simply appalling. Clothed with 
respectability and intrenched behind wealth and power, it submits 
to no restraint, and defies alike the laws of God and man. With 
despotic power, it levies tribute upon all trades and professions. Its 
votaries and patrons are recruited from every class of society. Through 
its instrumentality, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed, 
and the market is ruled by the amount of money its manipulators can 
bring to bear upon it. These considerations imperatively demand at 
the hands of the courts a faithful and rigid enforcement of the laws 
which have been ordained for the suppression of this gigantic and 
blighting curse.” 

What better verification could I have for the statements I have 
made in former chapters? This is the kind of business and the institu¬ 
tion that Dragon presides over. 

Allow me to quote a few paragraphs from the opinion of Judge 
Grosscup, in Beard vs. Milmine, 88 Fed. 868. On page 871 Judge 
Grosscup says: 

“Transactions in futures, of a purely speculative character, where 
nothing is put up except for margins, are in many essential results differ¬ 
ent from ordinary transactions. There is, in these transactions, no 




124 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


investment of money in anything tangible—in any property of sup¬ 
posedly equivalent value—that remains when the deal is ended. If a 
trader in ordinary pursuits meets misfortune, or becomes involved, 
something usually remains of his investment. Unless his fortune be 
entirely swept away, or he be dishonest, there is an estate. 

“But the speculator, investing his money in margins invests, practi¬ 
cally, in nothing but a turn of the market. If he meets misfortune, 
nothing remains. It is essentially putting his money into a turn of 
chance. The effect, upon the man, of transactions so radical in their 
money outcome has come to be notable. Transactions of this kind 
are, indeed, separated very narrowly, if at all, from gambling, pure 
and simple. 

“Both feed upon the same human propensity, and both lead to 
the same result. Each is an attempt, by the exercise of wit, to get 
T vhat another is expected , by the want of wit, to lose. Both lead up 
to false notions of wealth accumulation. Both bring on the loss of 
mental equipoise. Each filled its participant with a dangerous character 
of excitement—often a radical and desperate aggressiveness. 

“No one knows these things better than the brokers themselves. 
They see, now and then, striking instances of moral and business 
degeneration under the stimulus of this excitement. They see, now 
and then, instances of men, pressed for margins, losing all sense of what 
is their own and what is another’s. 

They witness, as well as the public, that almost unaccountable 
submergence of judgment and sense, under the effect of which trust 
funds are misappropriated, and bank funds embezzled by those who 
have, at the time, no thought of not eventually making good the loss. 

They, as well as the public, know how quickly crime, thus 
secretly begun under the radience of hope, soon expands into the daring 
of despair. They have seen, in nearly every community, men press 
eagerly towards these rainbows of fortune, only to fall quickly into 
disgrace and prison. 

These impressive lessons, are a part of the history of every 
considerable community. Instinctively we shudder for him who loves 
speculation, and can find the means for feeding that love, in access to 
moneys of another.’’ 


CONCLUSIONS 

In giving my conclusions, I feel that I must include as a pre¬ 
liminary, the last paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural 
address: 

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we 
are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


125 


which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations.” 

Our citizens are very patient and long suffering; but it does seem 
very hard and cruel knowing how severely millions of our people are 
struggling to get bread enough to live upon—Millions of Fathers of 
families, bending under burdens grievous to bear (not only for those 
bare necessities, which Lawson says, ‘‘the white slaves of Europe are 
ground down to believe are their only requirements, but those which the 
free and enlightened American believes, and has taught his family to 
believe, should be his necessities”), and millions of our mothers, wives, 
sisters and daughters, bending over their toils; in the home, in the 
store and sweat shops; in order that the home, the bulwark of the 
nation, be preserved inviolate, and that our Government should license 
and allow this fellow to go on adding fortune to fortune; literally by 
robbing the citizens of the United States, and the world. 

As a financial genius says, ‘‘Such stupendous sums looted from 
the coffers of the many and piled in the vaults of (one) unbalances 
the whole economic structure of the nation.” And again, ‘‘Each addi¬ 
tional million becomes a new weapon of oppression.” 

Either our Presidents do not realize these conditions or are afraid 
to grapple with them. How can we justify this? We cannot. The 
sooner our Congressmen get to work upon this cancer, the better for 
our people. 

To these supine embryonic statesmen, which statement does not 
apply to all, I will quote Disreali: ‘‘The care of the public is the 
first duty of a statesman.” What did one of the Vanderbilts utter? 
‘‘The public be damned.” What does Dragon say, if he ever thinks 
of the public? His actions strongly favor of ‘‘damn, ruin and utterly 
destroy”, by poverty with its incident disease and death of the human 
form. Governor Clark, of Iowa, spoke these significant words: ‘‘The 
health and happines of the public are paramount to every issue.” 

Hutchinson, himself, acknowledged that his corner of 1 888, raised 
the price of loaves of bread and diminished the size. 

Food products, so necessary for the nourishment and continuance 
of human life, should not be juggled with by scoundrels. Such an 
action, causing not only physical but mental suffering and moral 
degeneration, is despicable; and the promoters should be placed where 
they can do no more harm. 

Witness how the market for one grain has maneuvered for some 
two and one-half years. Wheat 88| to $1.35, then to 94 cents, to 



126 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


$1.58 to $1.08, to $1.22, to $1.01, to $1.47, to $1.35, to $1.94i, 

and so on. There is no necessity for these enormous sweeps of values. 
There was about as much natural cause for high prices, when the 
market was at 94 cents, $1.01, and 1.08, and ditto, for low prices 
when the market was at $1.67, $1.38 and $1.94J. We have had 
“Scarcity dope’’ sent broadcast throughout the world. Note what the 
dope will be, after the December option is settled, and you see May 
or July options tobogganing (perhaps before that date) ; and a spread 
between December and May. It is base manipulation and gross robbery 
of enormous amounts, unsettles the world’s bread and scatters ruin 
among thousands of families. You will find the Chief Manipulator in 
Chicago, Illinois, very busy pulling the wires. 

Admitting that the producer, where he was able to hold his wheat, 
and did so, has been the gainer by this rise; the consumer, and “short 
seller’’ of May, July, September and December Options have been the 
losers. From now or after the December Options have been settled; 
the producer and those “longs’’ on the option market, will be seriously 
bitten. Parity of production and consumption will never rule as long 
as Dragon is allowed to create these abnormal sweepes of fictitious 
values. 

Why do we allow this sinner to continue ravaging our people? 
Who is to blame, at the present time? Our own Government. How 
so? Because it licenses this Gambling under the deceitful title of 
“business”. 

Take the Motion Picture Trust. How quickly that was dissolved. 
And that, which is educating the people, while this Evil, a thousand 
times more gross and pernicious, is allowed to go on. 

Herbert Kaufman asks, “Who’s Boosting the Price of Food¬ 
stuffs”? Louis W. Hill says, “When the wheat has to be carried 
over the long haul to the Atlantic, a rise is the result.” What “causes 
the result” when wheat is 80 or 90 cents or 50 or 60 cents a bushel? 
Where does the “long haul” come in there? The rascal who is 
keeping up the price of wheat, is in the heart of Chicago, and there, 
and nowhere else, should our U. S. Department of Justice look for 
the cause, and likewise, the wire-puller. 

The farmer will undoubtedly wish to know what would happen 
to the price of wheat and corn, if the short selling license relative to 
gambling in food prices was revoked. I presume that as soon as an 
agitation was made in the halls of Congress, and there was some surety of 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


127 


success, the powers at Chicago would depress the market to such a 
price that a howl would go up from the frightened farmer and he 
would appeal to Congress not to go any further in the matter; and 
the noose would still remain around his neck. 

They will turn every stone possible to obstruct legislation upon 
this issue. They will engage the strongest legal talent to defend their 
unrighteous traffic, and by all sorts of misleading and erroneous state¬ 
ments, try to prove, as they often have in the past, that their so-called 
“business” is necessary to our body politic; and that the country can 
not get along without it. 

The elevators should not be in the hands of this rascal. Let 
me take a few paragraphs from a paper published in Illinois, the state 
that harbors the Chicago Board of Trade. The writer says, under 
the head of “Lucky Farmers”: 

“The Australian Government is giving the farmers a square deal. 
It buys their wheat, ships it on public railroads, loads it into public 
steamers, and sells it where it will bring the top price. 

“The Government pays the farmer 70 cents advance on each 
bushel of wheat as soon as shipped, and hands him the balance after the 
wheat has been sold. 

“This year (1914-15) the Australian wheat grower received a 
total of $1.40 per bushel for his wheat. He had no trouble with any 
middleman, because the government has wiped out the middleman. 

“No private elevator company held up the Australian farmer, no 
private railroad jobbed him on freight rates, no commission men cheated 
him, no stock exchange gambler beat him, no private banker got a 
mortgage on his ranch. 

“The Australian farmer has the full price of $1.40 per bushel 
in his pocket, the Government is ready to help him out with seed and 
machinery, and guarantees to take his whole crop next year on the same 
conditions that it took this year’s crop off his hands.” 

Now note the different treatment accorded our farmers: 

“During the same year, the American wheat grower received 
from 60 to 80 cents per bushel. He had to haul his wheat to a 
certain elevator controlled by a certain private company. He had to 
pay to a private railroad all the freight that the traffic would bear. 
He had to wait for the commission man to send him as much money 
as the stock exchange scalpers said it was worth, and for as much 
wheat as the commision man said arrived in good condition. 

“Next year is an uncertain quantity for the American wheat 
grower. He does not know what he will get for his wheat if the crop 
is good, and he may have to give a mortgage at usury interest, if the 
crop is bad.” 



128 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Farmer, don’t you become excited, for after the license is re¬ 
voked, Dragon will be shorn of much of his power to rob you; and 
the law of supply and demand will rightfully rule prices of commodi¬ 
ties. Be patient for a little longer, and you will be well repaid. You 
certainly have been patient with the rope around your neck and you 
can afford, a thousand times more, to be patient with the rope off your 
neck. You will agree that this is reasonable. 

Think of the freedom you will have from sordid buccaneering. 
The inducement for Dragon to send out wrong reports and misleading 
statements, will lessen from year to year, and you will come into your 
rightful inheritance and receive a fair remuneration for labor expended. 
Don’t mix up matters by sending any petition but the protest, as given 
in Appendix IV.; and further, as an additional protection, add to the 
protest a strong petition that the Elevators be taken over by the Govern¬ 
ment, in order to prevent Dragon from manipulating those to your dis¬ 
advantage; which he certainly will do. 

And provision packer, don’t you become nervous, and kick up 
a row by trying to keep the halter around your neck. Turn right in 
and add your name to the protest. You well remember, how, many 
a time and oft, you have been tricked, and have been led to sell your 
product at wrong times; and when you held your product lor better 
prices, or sold short at Chicago, so as to protect, as you thought, 
yourself; you have, year after year, been unmercifully fleeced. You 
surely do not wish this to continue indefinitely. Certainly not. Then 
pitch in and save yourself. “ ’Nuff said.” 

President Wilson may ejaculate “Incredible”, in reference to 
Teutonic $365,000,000, expended in order to buy “Neutrals.” If 
our beloved President would take a few moments to look into this 
highbinding graft institute, which I am presenting, it might be of some 
benefit to our countrymen. 

Many a time did Dragon, as Smith says, “Corner the American 
and Canadian wheat and Maize crops, upsetting all economics and the 
ordinary trade of the world in such commodities.” 

How long will these strenuous wind and water gamblers, with 
cheek and gall for surplus, be allowed to deceive and rob the public? 

Now ladies and gentlemen, I trust that my writing has not been 
in vain. I have given as much information as I could, in the space 
at my disposal, relative to the cruelty of this form of speculation; and 
I hope that I have proven that this is a considerable factor in producing; 



DRAGCN AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


129 


hard times, and incidentally, the high cost of living. The losses of the 
rich and middle classes, tend to make them penurious, and hence, they 
are prone to use the thumb-screw upon their dependents and laborers 
in order to even up. 

I hope that funds will be provided, to carry this word of truth 
and protection, throughout the states. If ever there was a message 
needed, this is one. 

When a Master Manipulator, by the twist of the finger, or a 
single order to a henchman, can disturb the world’s bread, and, with¬ 
out a twinge of conscience, bring disaster and ruin to a thousand 
families; is it not time that something was done in the line of preventa¬ 
tive? 

And last of all think of the added stringency carried in past 
years, of taking hundreds of millions to other shores, depriving us of the 
use of the money we have earned by the sweat of our brows. 

The following is a specimen of what the old traders warble. One 
I met a short time ago: “I wouldn’t read your d—d old book; but I 
want you to get it to the boys before they become tainted. There is 
where your book is needed.” And so it is. These fellows will con¬ 
tinue, knowing that it is a swindle, yet believing that they can “beat it.” 

What did “Old Hutch” say to his son: “My boy, I will give 
you a million dollars if you will not speculate.” The boy took the 
million and kept away from the Board of Trade. And where is the 
boy to-day? President of one of Chicago’s prominent banks, and 
President of the Art League of Chicago, and a vast owner of valuable 
art works, which he loans from time to time. Untermeyer warns per¬ 
sons against Wall Street. He, who accumulated $6,000,000 by buy¬ 
ing Bethlehem Steel Stock. Of course he was on the inside. Then 
Schwab was a fair asset. 

If I can be as successful in rooting out Speculative Gambling, 
as my “Yankee Cousin”, B. P. Hutchinson, was in starting it. I will 
be content. 

If, with the knowledge which I now possess, I can prevent a few 
thousand from being victimized and experiencing the horrors which 
I passed through, I will have done some good for my country. 

I fully realize that if I even succeeded in making a dent in this 
pachyderm’s hide, the claws of this Dragon will be reaching for me 
in devious ways. 

Do you for a moment suppose that these financial renegades will 





130 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


give up this so-called business, where they are winning millions, without 
a struggle ? Shall we have to wait until the Government gets after them 
from the correct source? 

One fellow, who happened to hit upon the name of Dragon 
Junior, said: “Just think how his father came up from a low financial 
position, by courage and enterprise”, as he put it. 

Ah! But by what infamous methods! 

As I type, I read in the morning paper that twelve Bucket Shops 
are caught in a raid in Ohio, and half of the managers are in jail. 
These fellows were carrying on the same game as that of Dragon, 
using the same dope, quotations and tricks. 

While the combined profit of these twelve was $3,000 a day. 
Dragon cleans up some days, $ 1 0,000,000. These bucket shop keep¬ 
ers are placed in durance vile, while Dragon rides in. his Cadillac. 
While they are condemned, shunned and reviled; Dragon is lauded 
to the skies and welcomed wherever he may roam. 

Do you catch on? He is worse than they are; for he provides 
the gambling paraphernalia, and his pilferings are a thousand times 
in size. Are you going to allow this disparity to continue? 

Do you suppose that this swindler, while backed by our Govern¬ 
ment, is going to give up the sure prospect of plundering our people, or 
other peoples, without a struggle? 

Do nations make deliberate war upon other nations without pros¬ 
pect of plunder? Would Dragon carry on these swindles, if there 
was no profit in them? 

If there is a more happy-go-lucky, heartless wretch, in good 
society, than an Option Broker, I have yet to see him. His training 
makes him so. If he was not thusly trained, he would break down 
under the continual pressure of witnessing so many men robbed right 
and left, broken and ruined. Many a victim leaves the broker’s 
office in sorrow and tears, never to return, and ashamed to go to his 
home and family. 

Hypnots, wake up from this illusion and deceit, and come to your 
normal senses and into your own. 

While watching the buccaneers of Europe, let us not forget that 
we have one big one at home. Keep an eye upon him. 

I say to you, that this craving something for nothing is a farce 
and a past issue. Giving fair return for emoluments received is the 
present slogan. 



DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


131 


If, in a measure, I can be instrumental in starting a movement 
toward abolishing this chronic festering sore, which for over fifty years, 
has been licensed by our Government, and fostered by our body politic; 
as were my relatives, Wendell Phillips, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
William Ellery Channing, and Charles H. Dana, instrumental in abol¬ 
ishing man slavery, I shall feel that I have done something to aid 
our country in its onward march in human progress. 

If I can temper the vitriolic lambasting of Phillips with the poetic 
geniality of Holmes, and weave in moral influence of Channing; and 
present this in the forceful style of Charles H., and descriptive of 
Richard H. Dana, perhaps the people will believe me. 

I fully realize what we are up against. A swindler, backed by 
$500,000,000, coupled with 40 years of accumulated speculative 
gambling paraphernalia, much of it inherited from his father, who 
reigned for over thirty years, king of the damnable business. 

Here is a person, prepared and fortified as I have stated. Pre¬ 
pared to deceive and rob the people. What an education. 

What will be meted out to him in the end of his career? He 
should not forget what was meted out to his father, near the close of 
his mortal existence. For three years his life was a blank; and he 
had to be led around as you would lead an imbecile. What a retri¬ 
bution. 

Dragon Junior better “take heed lest he fall.” 

As this book goes to press, I note that Canada has taken “Sweeping 
and drastic measures” and applying these to those who combine to raise 
the prices of necessaries of human life. Our Government could not do 
better as a preliminary than to follow suit and jail Dragon, for a long 
term, as his game is a hundred times more erronious, for he carries his 
point by means of wind trades, or base illigitimate methods. 

Waiving any acknowledgment of a so-called “business,” the point 
I wish to bring before your attention is this. Is this even a fair gambling 
proposition for the citizens of any State of our Union to engage in? A 
“business” where 98% lose 85% of their capital or margin which they 
have sent on to Chicago to back up their bets. These bets, which are 
misguided by the dope wired by Dragon and his Henchmen. This same 
dope so cooked that they are bound to bet on the wrong side. This is 
exactly the state of affairs at the present time, and isn’t it strange that 
any one of intelligence will engage in this wind farce? And isn’t it a 
wonder that they, who know that it is a swindle, will shake paws with 



132 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Dragon and ride in his Juggernaut? And yet, many of our brightest 
intellects, in all walks of business or profession, are made wrecks on the 
sea of financial life. 

I sincerely hope that you will be influenced by these pages, and see 
to it that steps be taken by your Congressman, to influence our President 
to make some recommendation toward eradicating this evil; that added 
financial peace and more of human happiness be guaranteed. For any 
one who sends margins by the tens of thousands to the Chicago Board 
of Trade, knowing that only a small per cent will be returned to the 
rightful owner; and no one knows this better than the keepers of 
Dragon’s Sub-Hoppers; namely, the Branch Broker Offices; is a traitor 
to the state in rvhich he lives. 

Now my dear readers, in closing, I have this to say to Dragon. 

Dragon, in the name of your Maker, give up this thirst for money 
and blood; this serpet deceit and ruthless slaughter of the innocent and 
guilty. Take the hundreds of millions robbed from the people by 
Dragon Senior and yourself, which are now in your keeping, and give 
them back to those from whom you so cruelly took them, or to the 
United States; and thus, in some degree, pave the way for your pardon 
before God! 



APPENDIX I 


List of Reference Books 


Here is a valuable array of literature tabulated by the author with 

which those interested can more widely investigate this evil for themselves. 

These are to be found in the Carnegie Public Libraries. 

Stafford, W. Y .—Safe Methods of Speculation, p. 76. (332.6 

St. 1 33. 

Norris , Frank —The Pit, a Graphic Description of the Chicago Board 
of Trade. 

Economic Side 

Emery, Henry Crosby —Future in the Grain Market, Economic 
Journal, 1899-45 (Leiter Deal), to 62. Speculation, p. 124. 
Speculation On the Stock and Produce Exchanges. Pardridge 
Deal, 1891-2. Leiter Deal, 1898-9. History, Economics and 
Public Law. 

Thomas , Patton —The Bucket Shop in Speculation. Munsey, Vol. 24, 
p. 65. 

Leiter , Joseph —Wheat and Its Distribution. Cosmopolitan, Vol. 26, 
p. 114, Nov. 1898. 

Dondlinger , Peter Tracy —The Book Of Wheat (633. I. D. 71 6 B). 
p. 241, Concentration of Price; Rise of the Speculative Market, 
p. 242, Dealers in Grain; Machinery of Speculation, p. 246, 
Hedging Sales, p. 247, The Speculator, p. 249, Evils of Spec¬ 
ulation. p. 258, Manipulation in General; Specultaion in For¬ 
eign Countries, p. 259, General Results of Speculation; Growers 
Are Now Great Speculators. 

Uneconomic, Questionable and Devilish Sides 

Bear , Wm. E .—Market Gambling, Including Various Tricks, Contem¬ 
porary Review. Vol. 65, p. 781, June 1894. Market Wreck¬ 
ing. Fortnightly Review, Vol. 67, p. 546, April 1897. 

Smith , C. W .—Commercial Gambling, Int. Com. & Fi. Gambling in 
“Options” and “Futures.” 

Payne , Will —Chicago Board of Trade, Several Corners Well Recited, 
Century, Vol. 65, p. 745, March 1905. 

Marcossen , Isaac F .—Perilous Game of Cornering Wheat and Corn 
Crop. Munsey, Vol. 65, p. 619, Aug. 1909; Vol. 41, p. 868, 
Sept. 1909; Vol. 42, p. 67, Oct. 1909; Vol. 42, p. 233, Nov. 
1909. 

Escher , Franklin —The So-Called Corner in Wheat. Harpers Weekly, 
Vol. 53, p. 30, March 1, 1909. 

Harris , John F .—The Wheat Corner. Harpers Weekly, Vol. 53, 
May 22, 1909, p. 13. 

Editorial —The Wheat Corner, Whom It Benefits and Whom It Don’t. 
Outlook, Vol 92, p. 14, May 1909. 


134 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


Marcossen, Isaac F. — The Passing of the Plunger. Munsey, Vol. 49, 
p. 3, April 1913. 

Whelpley, ]. D. —The International Wheat Corner. McClure s Mag., 
Vol. 15,p. 363, Aug. 1900. 

Lawson, Thomas W. —Frenzied Finance—Story of The Amalga¬ 
mated. Everybody’s Mag., commencing Vol. 1 1, July 1904, con¬ 
tinuing in Vols. 12, 13 and 14. 

Miscellaneous 

Hutchinson, B. P. —Speculation in Wheat. No. Am. Re., Vol. 133, 
p. 141. 

Crosby —Spec. On Stock and Produce Ex. (R. 305 C. 7267) Wheat 
Spec. No. Am. 153: 414. The Wheat Market. Sat. R. 
67:13. 

Tarbell, Ida M.—The Money Trust. Am. Mag., Vol. 75, p. 11, 
May 1913. 

Emery, H. C.—Leg. Against Futures. Polit. Sci. Quar., Vol. 10, 
p. 62, Mar. 1895. 

Parker, Harold —Russell Sage. Munsey, Vol. 12, p. 634, Mar. 
1885. 

Riggs, Edrv. G. —Wall Street. Munsey, Vol. 10, p. 351, 1893-4. 
Hampton, /. C.—The Leiter Wheat Deal. Nat. Mag., Vol. 8, 
P . 572, Sept. 1898. 

O'Keefe, P. J. —The Other Side of the Leiter Wheat Deal. Nat. 
Mag., Vol. 9, P . 25, Oct. 1898. 

Brisbane, Arthur —Owners of America, the Armours. Cosmopolitan, 
Vol. 46, p. 279, Feb. 1908. 

Hough, Emerson —The Swifts. Cosmopolitan, Vol. 46, p. 399. 
Mar. 1990. Havermeyers. Vol. 47, p. 159, July 1909; 
and several others. 

Many graphic accounts will be found in Harper’s Weekly, Leslie’s 
Weekly, McClure’s, Munsey’s, Cosmopolitan, Everybody’s, Pearson’s 
and American Magazines, National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 
America’s Successful Men, Memorial History of Boston, four volumes. 
Would call attention to King’s Eminent New Yorkers and New York 
Buildings, and Theo. H. Price’s Commerce and Finance, and Price 
Current-Grain Reporter, published weekly, in Chicago. 

Historic Towns, by Powell (4 vols.). Bygone Days in Chicago, 
by Cook. Brief and Argument No. 1 032, U. S. Court of Appeals, for 
the Seventh Circuit (Board of Trade of the City of Chicago vs. The 
L. A. Kinsey Co. et al.), by Charles D. Fullen. The Purchasing 
Power of Money, by Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale. T. E. Burton’s 
“Crises and Depressions.’’ R. W. Bobson’s “Business Baromoters.’’ 
Norman Angell’s “The Great Illusion,’’ “Corporation Finance,’’ by 
Edw. S. Meade and Wm. H. Lough. 

Consult Subjects, Biographies and Tables of Contents in the Refer¬ 
ence Rooms of our City Libraries, for extended Accounts. Many Sub¬ 
jects are outlined in Chapter One of this book. 




APPENDIX II. 


Personal Experiences 


A Letter From a Broker of Fifteen Years’ Experience 

. ... December, 1915. 

James H. Howe, 

Seattle, Wn. 

Dear Mr. Howe:— 

“If there is any of the inclosed you wish to use, it may be of some 
help to you in your work; or if there is any other part of the game that 
I can help you at, let me know. I feel that if you put what you have 
in the right form, you have good ground work for a splendid exposition 
of a present evil.” 

“There can be no mistake in comparing most of the patrons of 
the so-called commission and bucket shop houses throughout the country 
to-day, with the old time gamblers of by-gone days, who were the sup¬ 
port of the “Licensed Gambling” joint, since put out of business in the 
west by the legislatures of their respective states. At one time these 
gambling joints were looked upon as “legitimate,” in a way, as they 
were licensed by the state to do business and very few people living in 
the vicinity in which they were run have not, at one time or another, 
“dropped in” to see the game. 

In the early part of 1 890, the writer arrived in Montana, and in 
the city of Helena was surprised to notice on their main street, within a 
stone’s throw of the the center of business part of that city, no less than 
five or six large gambling houses advertising their business by signs over 
their doors, reading “The Capitol Gambling House”, “The State 
Gambling” etc., all being followed with the non de plume “licensed.” 
It was seldom the case that the big stakes played for; and I can recall 
one instance where one “Brockey Pete” (otherwise unknown for a 
better name) was supposed to have won $46,000 from old Atlas. The 
game lasted something over fifty hours, and had been visited by nearly 
every man in town, even the preachers just dropped in to see the 
gamblers playing for their high stakes. 

Butte, Spokane, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and all the large 
cities on the western coast, were noted for their gambling halls, which 
flourished with their numerous games of chance such as faro, black-jack, 
stud-poker, roulette wheels, etc. Probably one of the largest places of 
the kind in the west, was the old “Combination” in Butte, which had 
the name of being the place where any old kind of a game was accep¬ 
table, and the sky the limit. After wiping these out, they were followed 
up to a considerable extent by the bucket-shops; where gambling was 





136 DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


done on the prices of the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago 
Board of Trade. If the would-be patrons could only have seen how 
dishonestly these places were run—in the way of juggling of figures, in 
order to catch their limits and get the money, the old-time faro game 
would look like a Christian church compared to it. The Federal laws 
of the United States were finally called in to wipe these joints out of 
existence, being helped to some extent by the regular Board of Trade 
commission houses, acting in a way as competitors for business. How 
the latter have held out, against some stringent government control, can¬ 
not be explained; as there is, without doubt, as much dishonesty in the 
commission house as there was in the old bucket-shop way of getting 
the money; only perhaps in a little more genteel way of going down into 
their clients’ pockets after the money. 

It is very seldom that an outsider who is a habitual “trader” is 
allowed to carry away the money very far. Statistics show that 85 to 
90 per cent of the public’s money is lost in the game. The show is 
always over before they get started on the right track, and invariably the 
market is going in the opposite direction from which they are advised to 
play the market, by their broker. The broker cannot be blamed in but 
few cases, as he does not know the cards as they are laid; but the man¬ 
ipulators, the big men of the stock exchanges, who are feeling out at all 
times for the little man’s money and using their cunning devices of all 
kinds to get it. 

Once in a great while, a man can be found who has “beat” the 
game. One case comes to the writer’s knowledge, where a young man 
recently arrived from the eastern metropolis, short of funds but educated 
to the game, as most New Yorkers are. After locating in a western city 
and securing a position, which was barely enough for his existence, he 
managed, by careful economy in clothing and other necessities of life, 
to rake and scrape up the desired amount to margin a few shares of 
stock. Invariably he lost and how much will never be known, as he 
added to the amount every month and was never ahead of the game. 

By a great stroke of luck, this individual “got right with the mar¬ 
ket, and on the small amount of $83 margin soon run the figures up to 
over $5,700. This may seem strange to some, but for one so well ac¬ 
quainted with the game as he, and with unlimited nerve, it was an easy 
matter by continuous doubling up and plunging. Before the total amount 
was reached, 500 shares of stock were dealt in at one time, compared to 
1 0 shares at the start. You would naturally think that a person who 
had been down and out since the panic of 1907, and who had experi¬ 
enced all kinds of hardship in order to keep soul and body together and 
play the market at the same time, would have been satisfied to quit, or 
at least with the greater part of his winnings. 

He was urged at this point by a conservative broker, .who through 
pity as much as anything else, advised him to put the $5,000 away, and 
if he was inclined to continue in the game, play only the $700 back. 
This he decided to do, but it was only a short while until the market 




DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


137 


had all the money back, and the poor “boob” was in the same straight¬ 
ened circumstances as before, with little or no resources, and with that 
imbued microbe still working, which causes a great craving to “win” on 
this or that stock. The last heard of this young fellow, he was still 
watching the chalk with eager eye, and with about as much chance to 
make a fortune, as to pluck a rose from a snow bank. 

I could recite several cases where winnings have been made, but to 
our knowledge very few, if any, large amounts are taken out of the 
business, merely played back and all go the same old way. As to the 
losses, no one can describe or estimate how much they amount to through¬ 
out the country in a day. You will say, where one loses some one must 
win. Certainly they do, and there is where the insiders, or men who 
make the markets, get the money. We have known of cases where 
$5,000 or $10,000 have been put on margining stock or grain, and 
not one winning made: simply all wiped out from start to finish. Again, 
players will lose small amounts and put up more to get them back, and 
then no doubt lose more, etc. In other cases, they will make small win¬ 
nings and get “Brave” and plunge, perhaps losing all the original 
capital as well as the small profits. 

The government is watching the movements of the different 
exchanges all the while, and will no doubt restrict them so it will be im¬ 
possible to bleed the lambs as they have been bled during the past. The 
tax incurred at the present time on all sales has been of marked assist¬ 
ance in stopping “wash-sales,” although they have not been entirely done 
away with. We can look forward to the time the government will con¬ 
trol the telegraph and telephone lines of this country and in that way 
curtail the gambling by wire, which constitutes nearly three-quarters of 
the business done of either of the great exchanges of New York and 
Chicago. The first step in this direction will be the laws forbidding 
gambling in food-stuffs, which has been a detriment to this country for 
decades, and at present it has been impossible of elimination. This later 
will be followed by flat refusal to lease wires for stock gambling pur¬ 
poses. The Postal Telegraph has already been scared into line, and 
no doubt other companies will soon feel obliged to follow suit. 

Straightforward honest investment in securities should not be dis¬ 
couraged, but dishonest manipulation in prices of securities must be 
halted; and this is being done as fast as possible, through rigid investiga¬ 
tion and exposure, as has been made in the New Haven railroad affairs, 
as well as that of the Rock Island Company. 

Trading in foodstuff and securities on a margin with no intent of 
purchase, is the part of the game which will be done away with, and 
already several conservative brokerage houses in New York City are 
refusing trades on margins from their clients. Good clean brokerage 
business can be handled and at a profit, and part-payment plan, and is 
thus being carried on to-day. But the manpulation end of the game, we 
believe, is about to be quashed, the same as the old Gambling Joints and 
Horse-Race games have been put out of business.” A. 



138 


DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


A Thorough Test With the Usual Results 
Mr. Jas. H. Howe, 

Seattle, Wash. December 17, 1915. 

Dear Sir:— 

Knowing that you are about to publish a book exposing Rabid 
Speculation, and that you desire to include several experiences from those 
who have battled with the Devil Speculation, I forward my experience, 
with the hope that it may prove a warning to our young men. 

I was led into speculation many years ago, and lost what little I 
had accumulated from time to time, say a total of four or five thousand 
dollars. I would read the “dope” sent out; compare this year’s crops 
with the year before; listen to this and that wise guy of the markets; 
watch the quotation Boards, etc.; only to find after dangling, for a 
decade, between a financial heaven and hell that I was wrong on the 
market nearly every time when the show down came. 

I can now plainly see that the wires, reports and bulletins were 
just so many adjuncts to the snares set for me and thousands of others, 
to have us deposit our money where we would never get it back again. 

You are certainly on the right track to overthrow this evil; and I 
glory in your pluck at attack such a formidable menace to the success 
and happiness of our homes. If you knew the suffering I have caused 
my family by my wasting of thousands so needed in our home, you 
would certainly grieve with all of us. 

Whatever those manipulators may try to do to circumvent your 
efforts, keep steadfast in your work and thousands of us will rise up 


and bless you. Yours respectfully, g 

A Letter From One Who Knows 
Mr. J. H. Howe, __, Dec. 26, 1915. 


Seattle, Wash. 

Dear Sir:— 

‘Here is an experience which came under my immediate notice, and 
some $9,000 was dropped in a shorting of Northern Pacific Railway 
Stock.” 

‘‘To be termed a “Dub” in the Stock Exchange circles, is almost 
equal to being called some vile name, and is liable to show up the Irish 
in most any one. Several years ago, during the boom days of the Ex¬ 
change, when a person could buy most any stock and become a would-be 
millionaire over night, a certain owner and manager of a large brewery 
in one of our northwestern cities conceived the idea that nothing could 
go so high but what it would have to fall, according to the law of gravi¬ 
tation; and sold 200 shares of Northern Pacific at $180 per share. He 
did not have the stock to deliver, but went short of the market, depend¬ 
ing upon the broker to supply the stock for delivery. At that time, 
Northern Pacific was on its famous rise to $1,000 per share, being cor¬ 
nered by some of the great magnates of Wall Street. Of course, this 
was not known by the outside public at that time. 






DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT OF SPECULATION 


139 


Shortly after that sale was made, N. P. started up by leaps and 
bounds, sales being at $10 to $20 between. It took several large 
cheques to keep up with the margin calls that were immediately made; 
but as the brewer was possessed of considerable wealth, it was put up 
by him as the calls were made. At the close of one day’s business, a 
little over $1,300 was left to his credit out of $5,000, which ordinarily 
would be a fair margin upon 200 shares. 

But this proved insufficient, as on that fatal day, May 9, 1901, one 
of the greatest and swiftest bull panics struck the Stock Market, caused 
by the above mentioned corner, which started Northern Pacific up to the 
$1,000 mark, while the remainder of the market sank in the opposite 
direction with a thud. Before “Mr. Brewer’’ knew what had struck 
him, he was nearly wiped off the map, as the saying is; and out of his 
$10,000 he had paid to protect a short sale of something he did not 
have, a little less than $700 was to his credit, when the broker closed out 
the account and bought the stock in to cover his short commitment. His 
only remark was that “If I had taken anything but Northern Pacific, 
I would certainly have made a killing,’’ which he would; but the great 
“if’’ had been the stunner. It simply demonstrated that the market 
prices of stock do not always travel together; and one may never know 
what is being done behind the curtain, by the men who “make the 
market.” C. 

Thorough Study of Crops of No Benefit 
Mr. Jas. H. Howe, .., Dec. 26, 1915. 

Seattle, Wash. 

My Dear Sir;— 

I desire to add some of my experiences to those you are compiling. 
I am one of the “sorely afflicted” ones. I have been a fair student of 
crop statistics; supply and demand, both domestic and foreign, receiving 
attention; and have based my trades upon these. I was considered a 
crop statistic expert, and many would come to me for figures and ad¬ 
vice. But all my study was not worth a “tinker’s dam” when it came 
to trying to achieve success in trading from the board. I now believe as 
you do, that I was confused by hanging around the quotation board. 
I would try my luck also with some bucket shops. Would make a little, 
lose more; and four times out of five, the bucket shop would “grow 
groggy and bust.” My last deal was with a reliable (?) brokerage 
house, and was showing me a profit, after a series of losses upon other 
deals; and I’ll be darned if this firm, considered strong and reputable, 
did not turn turtle and blow out, and I lost over five hundred dollars. 
I am done with this faro game, where you do not have chance to even 
make day’s wages, to say nothing of the enormous losses; and my ad¬ 
vice is for every one else to quit and attend to legitimate business. 

Your exposing book ought to have a wide circulation for the good 
of our Nation; and I feel that it will, if you give it the right publicity. 
I shall watch the effect upon my immediate circle and report. 

Yours truly, D. 





AN ECONOMIC AND 

FINANCIAL BOOK UPON RABID SPECULATION 


THE 

DRAGON AND JUGGERNAUT 
OF 

SPECULATION 


By 


JAMES HAMILTON HOWE, M. B. 


(Of Boston and DePauw Universities) 


As Exemplified in Gambling, in Prices of Our Food Products, a Factor in Causing 

HARD TIMES, HIGH COST OF LIVING AND LABOR UNREST 
RAVAGERS and DESTROYERS of the HOME 

(Originally taken up as a hobby, the writer was urged to develop the subject 
into the form of lectures for the general good and protection of our people, and for 
special delivery before the higher classes of Colleges, Normal and High Schools, 
Chautauquas, Church Men’s Clubs and Leagues. The book was written at the sug¬ 
gestion of a broker of fifteen years’ experience, now retired.) 


The Only Book Of Its Kind in Print 
THE BOOK OF THE MINUTE 


Price: One Dollar 


Published by 

THE DRAGON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
225 Leary Building, Seattle, Washington, U. S. A. 


Upon Receipt of Postal Order for $1, a Copy of the First (Promotion) Edition 
Will Be Mailed, Well Wrapped and Post Paid, to Any Address in The United 
States of America. If Addressed to Foreign Countries, Add Ten Cents to the 
Above Fee. Write All Addresses Very Cleary. The Second Edition Will Be 
$1.25. 

Booksellers not already affiliated with the Publishers of this Book, must, for the 
present, inclose Post Office Money Order, covering trade price, with All Orders. 








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